By Skylar Thomas
MAIN PHOTO: Zoombombing has become a phenomenon on the online meeting platform. The platform which offers easy web conferencing is under scrutiny. (Source: Zoom website)
With the global need for online communication in the current coronavirus crisis, many have been turning to the US-based online platform Zoom for business meetings, online classes and even for social hangouts.
Unfortunately, along with the ease of communication is a not-so-new phenomenon – internet harassment.
In a trend known as “Zoombombing”, online trolls have been hijacking Zoom meetings uninvited and sharing lewd or offensive content. Their targets have included public meetings, online classes, and other social gatherings.
One public meeting hosted by the US food chain Chipotle was forced to end prematurely after a user managed to broadcast pornographic material from their screen.
Other Zoombombings have taken a more malicious form. A doctoral student’s presentation was interrupted when an unidentified user drew male genitalia and wrote racial slurs, according to a report by NPR.
The phenomenon has become so widespread that some online trolls are now offering to raid Zoom meetings at users’ request. Investigators from the FBI in Boston are taking the issue seriously, calling on people to report instances of Zoombombing to the authorities.
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has apologised to users in a post on the company website.
“We absolutely condemn these types of attacks and deeply feel for anyone whose meeting has been interrupted in this way”, he wrote.
In a separate post, Zoom has advised users on how to prevent their meeting from being sabotaged. For instance, meeting hosts can block participants from sharing their screens and set up password protections. The company has also strongly discouraged users from sharing meeting details on public platforms, where they are more accessible to online trolls.
Zoom’s popularity has exploded over the past three months as more people stay at home during the pandemic. The company reported that the platform hasd 200 million users as of March, up from just 10 million in December. The increasing usage has put the company under intense scrutiny.
The website Motherboard reported in March that Zoom had been sending user data to Facebook – even from users who did not own a Facebook account. Zoom has since stopped the practice and issued a public apology, but the company is now facing a lawsuit over its handling of user data.
The Guardian reported that security researchers have raised concerns about the platform, including its lax privacy controls and security vulnerabilities.
The publication said New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, had sent a letter to the company asking it to explain what it had done to fix problems that had been identified. She highlighted concerns about security vulnerabilities that might allow third parties to gain surreptitious access to consumer webcams.
Earlier this week, the company pledged to devote all its efforts to improving security measures and protecting user data.
