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Comment by nimbius | Hacker News Reader

TL;DR: its the NSO Group

These are the same guys who were outright permabanned from Facebook for hacking the whatsapp of about 1400 diplomats, government officials, human-rights activists, lawyers, and journalists scattered across the world.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/30/nso_facebook_employ...

If a shady government wants you gone (and doesnt have the resources for black site rendition like the US) then NSO is basically their starting point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSO_Group#Pegasus_spyware

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By "shady government", does this not include the UK government itself at this point? And we don't yet know which other governments will be represented, but we can apparently expect around 60, as per the article. That's a lot of potential shadiness.

Yes, though perhaps 'shady population' is more like it. When I lived in Coventry many years ago, several of my neighbours worked for a local firm on manufacturing lines churning out torture equipment. It was no great secret, and no-one had a problem with it.

What were they making?

Leg irons & electrocution gear were the two items I specifically remember.

Might be a bit of a stretch to call everyone in the UK shady based on your experiences of one single city.

Perhaps. But there have been repeated exposes of the UK's torture exports, with less public reaction than you'd get for a bad football ref decision.

Plus, the people are responsible for the actions of their government. So yeah, too bad if it hurts everyones feelings, but the UK is a pretty hard-core country when it comes to repression.

The extent to which the people are responsible for the actions of their government varies significantly between countries, even among developed democracies. The UK constitution (like those of several other developed democracies, but unlike others) promotes minority control, voter apathy, and polarisation.

Any population which gains life advantages as a result of its physical presence in a region governed by an entity, minority or otherwise, is responsible for the state - whether they were democratically 'allowed' to select their rulers, or otherwise.

Even in totalitarian dictatorships, still rather a thing in the modern world, the population are responsible for those dictatorships.

You can't govern the unwilling. Eventually, the unwilling will either be tacitly allied with the mechanics of the society, or they will be demoted to terrorist enemies, should they attempt to change that society without, alas, the approval of the ruling minority.

You choose to stay in a country which represses minorities. You don't have it forced on you.

You make a fair point, but there are nevertheless people in the UK not responsible for their government's actions. For some, leaving isn't a realistic option. Anyway, leaving means not being around to campaign for change.

Leaving is the only possible change.

Shady is a distraction, every government with the resources has been doing this sort of thing. The line where we could truthfully claim that only the bad guys support groups like NSO was passed years ago. The modern reality is that if you're not expanding your capabilities then someone is probably expanding their capabilities over you.

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