At the start of the coronavirus lockdown, popular online video conferencing app Zoom experienced unprecedented growth in the use of its platform – driven largely by healthy people going into ‘self-quarantine’ and gathering virtually around the world.
We’re now learning the Silicon Valley company “blocked several meetings and suspended the accounts of three activists at the request of the Chinese government” according to a new AP report:
The company released details Thursday saying that in May and early June, the Chinese government notified it about several online meetings planned to commemorate the crackdown on protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
China bans public dissent. Zoom said the government told it such activities were illegal and demanded that the company terminate the meetings and the host accounts of the organizers, even though they did not live in China.
Zoom initially complied with the Chinese government’s order and then later reinstated the suspended accounts.
Zoom has since provided a detailed explanation for its censorship actions and outlined policy changes it plans to make in the future.
The changes include developing technology to block participants by geography to comply with local government laws, while allowing other participants outside of a country’s borders, in this case mainland China, to attend Zoom meetings.
It’s unclear how Zoom will decide which meetings could still be shutdown if there are participants from multiple countries where local censorship laws conflict.
READ MORE CENSORSHIP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Censorship Files
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