A day after Apple sent warnings to independent Indian journalists and opposition politicians about potential state-sponsored hacking attempts targeting their iPhones, the Indian government took action against Apple itself. Officials from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) publicly questioned Apple’s internal threat algorithms and launched an investigation into the security of Apple devices. Privately, senior Modi administration officials called Apple’s India representatives, demanding the company to soften the political impact of the warnings. They even summoned an Apple security expert to a meeting in New Delhi to find alternative explanations for the warnings. The intense government effort to discredit Apple highlights the challenges faced by tech companies operating in critical markets like India.

The incident also underscores the dangers faced by government critics in India. Many of the journalists and politicians who received Apple’s warnings had been publicly critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi or his ally, Gautam Adani. The warnings to these individuals, including members of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, were followed by hacking attempts using the notorious spyware, Pegasus. The Indian government has never confirmed or denied using spyware, and it refused to cooperate with a Supreme Court-appointed committee to investigate the matter. However, evidence suggests the government’s use of powerful surveillance tools.

Apple’s warnings have shed light on hacking activities and have played a major role in exposing such abuses. The heightened attention has even reached the White House, which pledged with allied governments not to buy from firms whose tools were abused. However, India is not among the governments that have joined the pledge. For Apple, while the pressure from the Indian government has eased, there remains a delicate balance between protecting digital rights and maintaining a presence in the important Indian market.