Thailand's Digital Economy and Society Minister Chaichanok Chidchob is seeking answers from Apple after opposition leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut posted an iPhone spyware alert, which Chaichanok plans to raise at a Nov. 4 security meeting.
Natthaphong shared screenshots of the notice on Facebook on Nov. 3. His People’s Party said he was targeted by mercenary spyware. The notification described an attack as “trying to remotely compromise” his iPhone, but did not say the attempt succeeded.
Apple calls its threat notifications “high-confidence alerts” that a user was individually targeted. The company says its investigations cannot achieve absolute certainty and that it does not identify specific attackers or locations. The attacker and software used in Natthaphong’s case have not been identified.
AFP reported that government spokesman Ekkapob Pianpises called suggestions of state involvement “baseless.” Ekkapob said no funds were allocated for Pegasus in the current or previous fiscal year, although procurement requests had been made under earlier administrations. AFP also reported that a Democrat Party spokesman said party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva recently received an Apple alert, but his phone was not compromised.
The People’s Party won 120 seats in the February 2026 election, finishing second overall and becoming the largest opposition force, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The total comprised 88 constituency seats and 32 party-list seats.
A 2022 investigation by Citizen Lab, iLaw and DigitalReach identified at least 30 Pegasus infections among Thai civil society members from October 2020 to November 2021, during pro-democracy protests. The researchers did not conclusively identify a government operator.
Chaichanok told Thai PBS he was contacting Apple for more information and planned to raise the matter at a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) on Wednesday, Nov. 4. He said the reports he had seen did not identify Pegasus or any other specific software.
