 "BJP mixes George Soros to the hot ‘snoopgate’ broth")
A day after Opposition leaders claimed that they received messages from Apple warning them of ‘state-sponsored attackers,’ BJP has said that the Opposition’s ‘snoopgate’ allegation against the Centre is linked to George Soros. Sharing a thread on X that explains the connection between “Access Now,” a website mentioned as “DIGITAL SECURITY HELPLINE” by the Apple notification received by the Opposition leaders, and George Soros, BJP’s Amit Malviya said, “Interesting thread that draws link between George Soros funded ‘Access Now’ and Apple notifications, supposedly received only by Opposition leaders. It is therefore no surprise that Rahul Gandhi dropped everything and rushed to hold a press conference.”
“Part-2 of the thread details out the network George Soros funded ‘Access Now’ has built in India. Notification received (from Apple) by the usual suspects in Opposition ranks also refers to Access Now. Only if you believe in fairy tales, would you think it is all a coincidence,” Malviya added.
On Tuesday, Opposition party leaders including Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, Priyanka Chaturvedi of the Shiv Sena (UBT), AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi and Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra posted screenshots of the message received on their phones which read, “Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID.” In a statement issued following the incident, Apple said, “Apple does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker.” “State-sponsored attackers are very well-funded and sophisticated, and their attacks evolve over time. Detecting such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete,” the company added. Meanwhile, the IT Ministry has also ordered a probe into the allegations made by the Opposition leaders. “The government is concerned about this issue and it will get to the bottom of it. We have already ordered investigation into it,” IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.