Fact Check: Irina Tsukerman's article on Pegasusgate

Last month, Irina Tsukerman wrote an article for Polish state media titled “Pegasusgate: How Russia uses NGOs to destabilize Poland and other countries.” Telewizja Polska (TVP), called Polish Television in English, is known to publish government propaganda, radical conservative content, and hate speech. Following the 2020 presidential election, Reporters Without Borders called TVP the government’s “mouthpiece.” And the Wikipedia entry contains a laundry list of controversies surrounding the broadcaster – including its coverage of the LGBTQ movement.

Tsukerman, for her part, is known to frequently publish controversial, incorrect, and misleading information in articles, blog posts, interviews, and on social media.

After the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Tsukerman wrote that she hesitates to call it murder "because the intent in his killing has not yet been demonstrated." After the Israeli military destroyed the Associated Press office in Gaza, she wrote "perhaps we'll actually get more truthful information about what's going on." When Netflix removed an episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj after complaints from Saudi, Tsukerman claimed "human rights activists misrepresented the situation to the readers."

And last year, she was permanently banned from Twitter. 

Tsukerman’s article for TVP is not her first attempt at discrediting Amnesty International, Citizen Lab, Forbidden Stories, and others for uncovering widespread abuse of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware around the world. The article claims to be “based on open sources,” though it appears neither Tsukerman nor TVP verified the information prior to publication. 

Here’s a fact check of some of the claims Tsukerman makes in her article.

 What Tsukerman wrote:

“Now evidence emerges that the global Pegasus Project investigation is not what it claims to be. Indeed, this has all the markings of a long-term Russian intelligence operation.”

This is false. The Pegasus Project was a large-scale investigation into the use of NSO's Pegasus spyware, coordinated by Forbidden Stories with technical support from Amnesty International. It’s journalism, plain and simple, not a Russian op.

What Tsukerman wrote:

“[T]he campaign has implicated 45 countries, including Rwanda, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel, Bahrain, Mexico, India, Azerbaijan, and El Salvador, with allegations of systematic abuse of the software.”

This is false. In a 2018 report, Citizen Lab identified “a total of 45 countries where Pegasus operators may be conducting surveillance operations.” But that’s not the same as implicating them “with allegations of systematic abuse.”

What Tsukerman wrote:

“Indeed, the campaign did not start with Poland, but rather with Saudi Arabia, which was one of the first countries to be attacked with claims of Pegasus leading Jamal Khashoggi to his doom. However, since 2018, when these allegations were first made, no evidence of Pegasus presence ever emerged.”

This is false. In a 2018 report, Citizen Lab revealed that Omar Abdulaziz, a Saudi dissident and friend of Jamal Khashoggi, had been infected with the Pegasus spyware. Abdulaziz sued NSO Group that same year. In 2021, the Guardian and the Washington Post reported that the phones of Jamal Khashoggi’s partners, Hanan Elatr and Hatice Cengiz, had been infected with Pegasus prior to his murder, based on forensics by Amnesty International and Citizen Lab. Hanan Elatr filed a lawsuit against NSO Group earlier this year, and continues to ask for help in recovering her late husband’s devices from Turkey so that they too can be analyzed.

What Tsukerman wrote:

“There is scant public mention of [Ron Deibert’s] publications, which is unusual for a Western academic.”

This is false. As the founder and director of Citizen Lab, Ron Deibert has authored, contributed to, and overseen more than 160 reports on cyber espionage, commercial spyware, censorship, and human rights. These publications can be found both on Google Scholar and ResearchGate, including a 2010 report on control and subversion in Russian cyberspace. In 2013, Deibert was appointed to the Order of Ontario and awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for his work. In 2022, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada.

What Tsukerman wrote:

“... and even created his own additional network called ACCESS NOW.”

This is false. Access Now was founded in 2009 by four people, Brett Solomon, Cameran Ashraf, Sina Rabbani and Kim Pham.

What Tsukerman wrote:

“Runa Sandvik, who is now a consultant at the Ford Foundation, visited Snowden in Moscow…”

This is false. To be clear, I’m the founder of Granitt and an advisor to the Ford Foundation’s Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) initiative. I’ve never visited Snowden in Moscow.

What Tsukerman wrote:

“... while occasionally feigning to offer support to Ukrainian journalists.”

This is false. I’ve supported journalists traveling to, and working in, Ukraine pro-bono since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 and continue to do so now.

What Tsukerman wrote:

“Moreover, Sandvik, along with Greenwald, is Snowden’s inextricable official link to Anonymous and assorted related hacker groups supportive of Snowden’s agenda.”

This is false. I … don’t even know where to start with this one.

What Tsukerman wrote:

“[Carlos] Dada had early involvement in supporting Snowden’s encryption projects…”

This is false. Here, Tsukerman links to a 2013 article about email provider Lavabit shutting down after U.S. authorities ordered the company to turn over encryption keys as part of its investigation into Snowden. Lavabit was not one of Snowden’s “encryption projects,” nor was Dada involved in it. At the bottom of the 2013 article is a section with other stories from the same author, including a 2022 article about Dada, his work as co-founder of El Faro, and his story about drug cartels and the Honduran military, businessmen, and politicians.

What Tsukerman wrote:

“The Citizen Lab’s allegations appeared grossly hyperbolized, if not outright fabricated, presenting huge numbers of Pegasus targets, despite the limitations on…”

This is false. In the 2022 report, Citizen Lab disclosed that “at least 65 individuals” in Spain had been “targeted or infected” with spyware. Because Citizen Lab’s tools for detecting Pegasus are more developed for iOS than Android, it said the “report heavily undercounts the number of individuals likely targeted and infected with Pegasus because they had Android devices.” As of March 2023, no Spanish government agency has reached out to Citizen Lab about this report. 

What Tsukerman wrote:

“In 2017, a new outlet called Forbidden Stories popped up, allegedly in response to the death of a journalist assassinated in Malta, to shed light on the plight of persecuted journalists. However, the overwhelming majority of their attention was focused on the Pegasus Project.”

This is false. Forbidden Stories was founded in 2017 with the mission "to continue and publish the work of other journalists facing threats, prison, or murder." The organization has launched a number of projects in line with this mission, both prior to and following the Pegasus Project.

What Tsukerman wrote:

“Forbidden Stories, it turns out, received funding from one of Snowden’s organizations…”

This is false. Freedom of the Press Foundation develops SecureDrop, a free and open-source platform for anonymous and secure communications between journalists and sources. Forbidden Stories is using SecureDrop for its SafeBox Network, allowing threatened journalists to safely store and protect the stories they’re working on.

What Tsukerman wrote:

“Citizen Lab and its partners have overwhelmingly focused on Pegasus and other Israeli software, not Russian, Chinese, or others.”

This is false. Access Now, Amnesty International, Citizen Lab, Forbidden Stories, and others have written numerous articles about censorship, surveillance, spyware, and human rights in many different countries. A recent New York Times article about Russian companies building surveillance technology even includes a quote from Citizen Lab.