Two giants of activism have acquired a new target in their ongoing fight for online privacy rights in the digital age. 

Forensic Architecture is pairing with Edward Snowden to take on an Israeli spyware company called NSO Group that has been behind hacks of journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists across the globe since its founding in 2010.

Decrying a campaign of “digital violence” resulting from a spyware product authored by the company called Pegasus, Forensic Architecture, which has targeted NSO in the past, is once again taking aim in the form of an open-source investigation meant to raise awareness of the ongoing abuses that have been allowed to continue despite a slate of legal challenges.

The group’s lead researcher Shourideh Molavi pointed to the psychological toll taken by hacking victims as the reason behind the group’s condemnation of Pegasus and other similar technologies it charges as having an outsized role in a system of “state violence.”

“It’s hard for people to understand how a hack can have physical consequences,” Molavi told Arnet News. “It’s just your phone, right? But really, it’s your relationships, it’s your family, it’s your feeling of security, it’s your mental health.” 

Filmmaker Laura Poitras, who had previously made Snowden the subject of her award-winning documentary Citizenfour, has compiled a short film about the project which will debut at the Spike Lee-chaired Cannes Film Festival later this month. 

Featuring a score by Brian Eno, Digital Violence was made possible with the help of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab and Amnesty International. Access to the platform can be found here.