Earlier this week, several iPhones in India, including those belonging to prominent political opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, received a notification from Apple warning that they may be targeted by state-sponsored attackers. However, Apple has stated that these notifications could be false alarms. Modi’s government has dismissed allegations of spying on the opposition, journalists, and critics.
Critics of Modi’s government see this incident as another example of their crackdown on free speech, independent press, and dissenting voices. They believe that the surveillance suggested by the alert could give the governing party an advantage in the upcoming election.
Rahul Gandhi, the opposition leader, revealed that many members of the Congress Party received the notification. He brushed off the government’s surveillance, saying, “We are not scared. You can do as much phone-tapping as you want, I don’t care.”
India’s Minister of Communications, Electronics, and I.T., Ashwini Vaishnaw, dismissed the spying allegations as complaints from “compulsive critics.” He called the notifications a distraction and urged the public to ignore them. However, some individuals, like newspaper editor Sriram Karri, expressed concern about the potential invasion of privacy and questioned the motives behind the notifications.
Apple has been sending threat notifications since 2019, following the revelation of Pegasus, a spyware program developed by Israeli cyber-intelligence company NSO. Some independent researchers in India have reported Pegasus infections on their phones, but a committee investigating these reports disbanded last year due to lack of cooperation from the government.
Amnesty International, the human rights group, labeled the Apple notifications as another surveillance scandal. They expressed concern about journalists and opposition leaders receiving these notifications ahead of state and national elections. Apple confirmed that it was the source of the alerts, but emphasized that they could be false alarms due to imperfect and incomplete intelligence signals, and to avoid aiding potential attackers.
Mishi Choudhary, a lawyer defending the rights of internet users and software developers in India, highlighted that the notifications seemed to target only opposition figures. Apple has become increasingly important in India’s growing economy and has joined a government campaign to increase manufacturing in the country.