Investigative Journalist Ronan Farrow Talks Documentary About Military-Grade Spyware Being Used Against American Citizens
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Ronan Farrow recently explored the shadowy world of spyware in a gripping documentary about Pegasus, a military-grade surveillance tool developed by the Israeli company NSO Group. Initially designed to combat terrorism and organized crime, Pegasus has reportedly been misused by governments worldwide, including targeting U.S. citizens.
Farrow, the son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen, highlights in the new HBO documentary “Surveilled” how Pegasus can infiltrate smartphones, extract data, and even activate microphones and cameras—all without the user knowing. The tool, originally sold under the guise of aiding national security, has been implicated in scandals involving surveillance of journalists, dissidents, and also political figures.
Collaborating with organizations like Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, the documentary examines Pegasus’ controversial deployment and its chilling effects on democracy. One of its most striking revelations is how Pegasus has allegedly been employed against Americans, raising questions about governmental accountability and privacy rights.
“All of the privacy law experts that I’m talking to are very, very afraid right now,” he told The Guardian. “This tech is just increasingly everywhere, and I think we have to contend with the inevitability that this is not just going to be this path of private companies selling to governments.”
The film also sheds light on the Pegasus Project, a 2021 investigation involving 17 global media outlets, PBS reported. The project revealed a leaked list of over 50,000 phone numbers believed to be potential spyware targets. Among the most shocking findings were the confirmed infections of several smartphones belonging to individuals close to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, raising concerns about how Pegasus facilitates human rights abuses.
As Laurent Richard of Forbidden Stories notes in the documentary, “Collaboration is protection.” Forbidden Stories is a nonprofit organization based in Paris whose mission is ensuring that important investigative journalism persists, even in the face of censorship or threats.
In an article for The New Yorker, Farrow also discussed the misuse by governments worldwide, including democracies, of this tool. Highlighting the Catalan independence movement, he details how spyware infiltrated Jordi Solé i Ferrando Cataloni’s phone before he joined the European Parliament. Elies Campo of Citizen Lab confirmed the infection, revealing spyware’s capability to extract data or activate a phone’s camera and microphone. Solé called it “a clear political and judicial persecution.”
The documentary raises urgent questions about the ethics of selling such powerful surveillance technology and the steps needed to regulate its use.
