WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms ( META )

warned a well-known Italian migrant rescue activist that he was

recently targeted with spyware, according to a screenshot of the

alert shared with Reuters, making it the second such case made

public in Italy so far.

Luca Casarini, who co-founded the Mediterranea Saving Humans

charity, said he received the warning over Meta's WhatsApp chat

platform on Friday. It was the same day Meta publicly accused

surveillance company Paragon Solutions of targeting roughly

ninety of its users in more than two dozen countries, including

an unspecified number of reporters and activists.

Meta's announcement, which was paired with a

cease-and-desist letter to Paragon, alleged that the reportedly

American-owned company had tried to steal data from its users

using a sophisticated technique that required no interaction

from its target, a so-called "zero click" hack.

Meta declined to comment on the message sent to Casarini.

Paragon and its owner, Florida investment group AE Industrial

Partners, did not immediately respond to emails.

Casarini is often criticized by anti-migrant, pro-government

newspapers in Italy for his charity's work saving migrants in

the Mediterranean, where Africans desperate to reach European

shores in overcrowded boats that often capsize.

Casarini has previously been prosecuted for allegedly

abetting illegal immigration, and he told Reuters that his

communications had been intercepted as part of that case. But he

said he did not know who was behind the attempt to break into

his phone flagged by WhatsApp or whether it was judicially

sanctioned.

"It's a violation of democracy," he said.

Italy's interior ministry did not immediately return a

message seeking comment.

Casarini's disclosure follows a few days after that of

Italian journalist Francesco Cancellato, who outed himself as

the recipient of one of the WhatsApp alerts on Friday.

Cancellato told Reuters his independent online newspaper,

Fanpage, specialized in undercover investigations, notably a

recent expose of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's youth

wing which showed members describing themselves as fascists and

shouting the Nazi slogan, "Sieg Heil."

Cancellato said he was shocked by the intrusion but wanted

to reserve judgment about who was behind the hacking until his

newspaper had conducted its own investigation into the spying.