After contact from CAMERA, The Washington Post changed an inaccurate headline about an Israeli-founded tech firm.
A Dec. 5, 2018 Op-Ed by columnist Max Boot, initially entitled “Israel is selling spy software to dictators–and betraying its own ideals,” detailed the workings of a private firm, NSO Group, in creating surveillance software. The organization was created by veterans of the Israeli intelligence agency, Unit 8200 and is based in Israel. However, a San Francisco-based private equity firm owns NSO Group.
The Post’s headline implied that the nation of Israel was itself responsible for creating the software—conflating the actions of a private firm with that of a government. Following contact from CAMERA, The Post changed the headline to “An Israeli tech firm is selling spy software to dictators, betraying the country’s ideals.”