ROME — Italy's government tried to deflect embarassment after an Israeli tech company cut its ties with Rome for allegedly using military-grade spyware to surveil critics of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. 

 Palazzo Chigi denied wrongdoing.

 WhatsApp announced last week that Paragon Solutions, an Israeli-founded company now owned by an American venture capital firm, had used a sophisticated spyware product called Graphite to target 90 users of the encrypted messaging service.

 Seven of Graphite's targets were Italian, Palazzo Chigi said. 

 Two of those Italians so far come forward: Francesco Cancellato, editor-in-chief of newssite Fanpage, and Luca Casarini, member of the late 90s' militant leftwing movement Tute Bianche and founder of migrant rescue NGO Mediterranean Saving Humans. Husam El Gomati, a Swedish-based Libyan activist, said he was a Graphite target as well. The three men have in common a history of criticizing the Italian right. 

 Meloni said neither she her her government were responsible for the Italians' surveillance. The Prime Minister announced that she had "activated" the Agency for National Cybersecurity (ACN) to determine who had sicced Paragon's spyware on the targets. 

  Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Paragon Solutions works exclusively with state entities. The Jaffa-based tech company contracted to "two distinct Italian entities, per Haaretz: "a police agency and an intelligence agency."

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