SAN FRANCISCO, June 10 -- A US judge told the world's most notorious spyware company to stop hacking WhatsApp. According to Meta, it did not. The company has accused NSO Group, the blacklisted Israeli firm behind the Pegasus spyware, of continuing to attack WhatsApp users months after a federal court ordered it to stop, and is asking a judge to hold it in contempt. WhatsApp said it detected fresh attempts to compromise its users through deceptive links and social-engineering messages, traced to the same firm a court barred last year from targeting the platform at all.

The motion, filed this week, reopens one of the most consequential fights between a Silicon Valley giant and the global surveillance-for-hire industry. WhatsApp first sued ...