Meta identifies six firms, including India's BellTroX, for spying on users

BellTroX allegedly operated fake accounts used in suspected efforts to hack people's phones or computers; the company targeted people in countries including Australia, Angola, Saudi Arabia and Iceland

Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. has announced a sweeping crackdown on surveillance companies that it says have used its social media websites to spy on people in more than 100 countries.

In a report published on Thursday, Meta identified six companies from Israel, India, and North Macedonia, in addition to an unknown entity in China, which it said carried out “indiscriminate” surveillance targeting thousands of people.

Meta said it had blocked infrastructure associated with the companies, issued cease and desist warnings to them, and banned about 1,500 of their accounts from Facebook and Instagram, which had secretly been used to carry out