Authoritarian Compliance

Norway's national criminal investigation service (Kripos) charged Telenor with complicity in crimes against humanity, and Norway's domestic security service (PST) separately charged the company with breaching the Sanctions Act, following a joint raid on Telenor's Fornebu headquarters on September 15, 2026. Prosecutors allege that Telenor Myanmar Ltd (TML) repeatedly handed the military junta customer call logs, names, addresses, and location data after the February 2021 coup, which the junta used to track, arrest, and imprison dissidents; documents show roughly 500 customers were put at risk of arrest, and a civil suit alleges the data sharing contributed to the 2022 execution of activist-lawmaker Phoe Zeya Thaw. The Sanctions Act charge concerns Telenor's March 2022 sale of TML, which allegedly included surveillance equipment transferred without required Foreign Ministry authorization. Telenor, 54%-owned by the Norwegian state, said its employees faced imprisonment or death if they had refused military orders and that it is cooperating fully with prosecutors. The charges are described as among the first criminal prosecutions of a major telecom for authoritarian surveillance complicity.

Digital rights group SHARE Foundation, corroborated by Amnesty International and Citizen Lab, found at least 14 Serbians infected with mercenary spyware between December 2025 and August 2026, including student pro-democracy activists, an opposition member of parliament, and a local government official. At least one confirmed Pegasus infection (zero-click) was documented alongside at least two infections with a domestic NoviSpy spyware variant, one occurring after police confiscated a student's phone during questioning. Apple sent threat notifications to affected users in 110 countries on August 13, 2026. The targeting coincided with Serbia's March 2026 local elections and ongoing student protests following the 2024 Novi Sad railway station collapse, with additional targeting anticipated around October 2026 parliamentary elections. Citizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton said Pegasus 'is still being used to hack people campaigning for democracy' despite a decade of NSO reform promises.

In August 2026, Huawei courted Egypt with a proposal to build AI data centers powered by its Ascend chips, explicitly including military and surveillance applications and integration with national population databases; reporting noted the presence of China's Ministry of Public Security insignia in proposal materials, suggesting direct involvement of Chinese state surveillance infrastructure. The bid put Huawei in direct competition with a US-backed consortium for the same government tender, marking one of the first instances of head-to-head US-China competition for a national AI data center contract. The US government raised concerns, warning of extraterritorial legal consequences for unauthorized use of restricted Huawei accelerators; Egypt is one of roughly 40 countries requiring US permission for AI chip shipments. A similar Huawei-powered national AI proposal in Malaysia was scaled back after US pressure, and Malaysian customs seized a $13 million chip shipment bound for re-export in June 2026.

On August 24, 2026, French AI company Mistral AI announced a strategic collaboration with HUMAIN, the Saudi state-owned AI company, to jointly develop and localize frontier AI models optimized for Arabic, explore use of HUMAIN's Saudi data-center infrastructure, and pursue a joint go-to-market strategy across regulated sectors (financial services, telecommunications, public sector, manufacturing) in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East. The deal is valued in the 'hundreds of millions of euros' though key infrastructure and customer terms remain undisclosed. Mistral framed the deal around data 'sovereignty' and customer control, but made no public statement addressing human rights concerns about deploying AI infrastructure for a government with a documented record of surveillance and suppression of dissent, including for public-sector deployment.

A cross-border investigation by Forbidden Stories, the Guardian and Middle East Eye, based on a decade-long DGST insider (pseudonym 'Safir') corroborated by security sources in Morocco and Europe, detailed how Morocco's intelligence agency DGST acquired and used NSO Group's Pegasus spyware from 2017 onward against domestic political opponents, journalists and foreign officials, including French President Emmanuel Macron and 15 French government members. The investigation described a three-party arrangement in which a UAE-linked company (Al Fahad Smart Systems, later acquired by UAE state-owned defense group Edge) acted as financial intermediary or payer for Morocco's access to Pegasus. Morocco has consistently denied purchasing Pegasus despite the documentary and testimonial evidence; NSO Group declined to confirm Morocco as a customer, citing Israeli law.

On July 13, 2026, the European Union imposed sanctions on VK Company for developing MAX, a messaging app mandatorily preinstalled on all smartphones, tablets, computers, and smart TVs sold in Russia since September 2025. MAX's terms of service explicitly permit sharing user data with Russian government institutions, and human rights lawyers say law enforcement has access to VK-administered platforms including VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and MAX. The EU action, part of a package that also sanctioned developers of the FSB's SORM surveillance system, followed a Russian government crackdown on independent apps such as Telegram and WhatsApp. MAX had over 45 million registered accounts and 18 million daily active users as of late 2025.

TikTok removed or shadow-banned at least two MalaysiaNow videos in July 2026 - a July 6 report on a Greenpeace-led protest against Lynas rare-earth operations, and a July 7 press-conference video featuring lawyers representing youths killed by police - citing only 'integrity and authenticity' issues. It was the third MalaysiaNow video removed from TikTok in 2026 without further explanation, following earlier removals of coverage on Malaysia's anti-corruption commission chief and opposition parties. The removals occurred while TikTok operates under Malaysia's MCMC content-licensing regime; the same videos remained available on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Coverage noted allegations of a pro-Israel moderation bias following TikTok's 2025 US ownership restructuring.

On June 5-8, 2026, the US Department of Defense added Alibaba Group Holding Limited to its Section 1260H list of 'Chinese Military Companies operating in the United States,' citing indirect affiliation with SASAC and military-civil fusion contribution through MIIT ties. Alibaba disputed the designation, stating it 'is not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy.' The listing bars the Defense Department from contracting directly with Alibaba immediately, and from procuring its products/services through third parties starting June 2027.

On June 5-8, 2026, the US Department of Defense added Baidu, Inc. to its Section 1260H list of 'Chinese Military Companies operating in the United States,' citing indirect affiliation with SASAC and military-civil fusion contribution through MIIT ties. Baidu called the designation 'entirely baseless.' The listing bars the Defense Department from contracting directly with Baidu immediately, and from procuring its products/services through third parties starting June 2027.

On June 5-8, 2026, the US Department of Defense added BYD Company Limited to its Section 1260H list of 'Chinese Military Companies operating in the United States,' citing direct and indirect affiliation with SASAC, indirect affiliation with MIIT, and residence in or affiliation with a military-civil fusion enterprise zone. BYD called the determination a contradiction of facts, said it is 'not a military enterprise,' and stated it would pursue administrative and legal remedies. The listing bars the Defense Department from contracting directly with BYD immediately, and from procuring its products/services through third parties starting June 2027.

Middle East Eye reported in June 2026 that Israeli spyware firm NSO Group continued to target WhatsApp users with Pegasus despite a binding US court order arising from the Meta v. NSO Group litigation. The reporting cited evidence of continued infections after the judgment, raising the prospect of contempt proceedings and renewed pressure on US sanctions enforcement against the company.

In April 2026, the EFF published analysis showing Palantir's ELITE tool is used by ICE for mass deportation sweeps, contrary to Palantir's claims of 'prioritized enforcement.' Sworn testimony revealed ICE agents use ELITE to determine where to conduct deportation sweeps using data from 'all kinds of sources' including Medicaid. Nearly 1 in 5 ICE arrests were of Latine persons with neither criminal history nor removal order. Reports link Palantir systems to facial recognition used to identify people recording law enforcement. The tool has been connected to deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Palantir publicly embraces UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

In March 2026, X withheld numerous Indian accounts belonging to journalists, activists and parody/satire handles (including a page with 240,000+ followers and journalist Sandeep Singh), citing generic 'legal demand' notices under Section 69A of India's IT Act, with little or no explanation given to affected users. The takedowns came amid a broader surge in Indian government content-blocking activity: government blocking orders roughly doubled to over 24,000 in a year, with more than half targeting X, and in February 2026 India cut the compliance window for removing flagged content from 36 hours to 3 hours. Digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation called the process 'alarming', saying 'secret and inaccessible censorship defeats procedural safeguards' set out by the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, and that the targeted content was political or satirical rather than clearly unlawful. X complied with the government orders without public objection or transparency reporting on the specific accounts affected.

At a Las Vegas company event in February 2026, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff made at least two remarks joking about ICE officers 'in the building' after asking international employees to stand. Internal Slack channels 'lit up with angry reactions.' 1,400 employees subsequently signed a letter expressing concerns about Agentforce AI being used by ICE to automate processes like handling tipline reports. At least 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025 and at least 9 in 2026, including high-profile shootings.

In February 2026, Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 identified hacking group TGR-STA-1030 as connected to Beijing in a draft report, but the final published version described them only as 'a state-aligned group that operates out of Asia.' Two sources told Reuters the company feared retaliation from Beijing after Chinese authorities banned ~15 US/Israeli cybersecurity firms in January 2026. The campaign had breached government and critical infrastructure in 37 countries. SentinelOne independently confirmed the China link. VP Nicole Hockin called suggestions 'speculative and false.' Palo Alto has 5 offices and 70+ employees in China.

A January 2026 Citizen Lab report found Cellebrite equipment was used in at least seven cases to extract data from phones seized from activists and a journalist detained during pro-Palestinian protests in Jordan between late 2023 and mid-2025. None of the individuals consented to the searches. All four devices forensically analyzed showed Cellebrite product use in 2024-2025.

Ahead of Uganda's January 15, 2026 presidential election, the Uganda Communications Commission ordered all licensed telecom operators to suspend public internet access and select mobile services. MTN Uganda complied, confirming it acted 'in line with its licence obligations.' Amnesty International said the compliance risked making MTN complicit in human rights violations and urged restoration of access, citing UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights; MTN did not respond to requests to address the criticism. Ugandan telecom operators, including MTN, were subsequently taken to court over the shutdown. The incident followed a February 2025 Open Secrets report documenting MTN's broader pattern of involvement in government-ordered shutdowns across Africa and the Middle East, and an October 2025 six-day shutdown in Tanzania during unrest described as the country's worst post-independence massacre.

Following a January 13, 2026 directive (ECO/436) from the Uganda Communications Commission, Airtel Uganda shut down public internet access, social media, messaging apps, and mobile broadband ahead of the January 15 presidential election, alongside MTN Uganda. Airtel did not publicly challenge the directive's legal basis. Human Rights Watch and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights condemned the shutdown as a violation of the African Charter's rights to expression, association, and political participation. Airtel Uganda and MTN Uganda were subsequently named as respondents in a Ugandan High Court lawsuit challenging the shutdown's legality.

During Iran's nationwide internet blackout beginning January 8, 2026 -- described by the BBC as one of the most extreme shutdowns in history and accompanying a crackdown that killed dozens of protesters -- MTN Irancell CEO Alireza Rafiei was dismissed after reportedly delaying compliance with a security-body order to cut internet access, according to IRGC-linked Fars news agency reporting cited by Iran International. Ranking Digital Rights' 2026 Telco Giants Index found that MTN Group, despite ranking 2nd of 12 major telcos overall on transparency, consistently omits data about government surveillance and network-shutdown demands handled by its Irancell subsidiary -- an omission RDR called 'particularly glaring' given Iran's use of shutdowns to suppress dissent. MTN was one of only a few companies in the index praised for disclosing shutdown-demand data in other markets, making the Irancell gap notable as a carve-out.

In January 2026, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a lawsuit accusing Cisco of supplying technology used by China to identify, detain, and persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Leaked 2008 marketing materials allegedly showed Cisco touted its products' ability to identify 90%+ of Falun Gong online content. Plaintiffs allege arrest, detention, torture including beatings with steel rods, electric shocks, and forced labor camps.