By University Times: The student news site of California State University – Los Angeles
A feminist Zoom lecture was “Zoom bombed” by multiple people who began saying racist slurs, screen sharing explicit video content, yelling and causing general chaos.
This happened during what was supposed to be a gathering aimed at discussing de-colonialism and a celebration of the tail end of Women’s History Month.
Zoom bombing is a phenomenon that started as schools shifted online during COVID-19 and is generally referred to as people using technology to troll and disrupt classrooms.
Dionne Espinoza, one of the event organizers and a professor from Cal State LA’s Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) program said the experience had shaken her.
“All event organizers could do was recoil in shock when one Zoom bomber forcibly shared his screen to everyone, displaying an explicit video of a woman defecating.”
“I think that the language that was used felt very violating and violent,” she said. “What really concerned me was the racial and gender violence of the bombing because it really infringed in a space where women of color were the center of the conversation.”
At the height of the event, there were around 93 attendants in the Zoom call. The Zoom bombers appeared with no warning 40 minutes into the call.
The Zoom bombers appeared to be at least five adolescents due to their camera being turned on upon arrival. One or two of them even appeared to be children. They interrupted the event by loudly announcing their arrival and interrupting Norma Alarco, a visiting professor from Brandeis University, during her lecture.
They started calling out offensive obscenities, seemingly aimed at no one in particular. One Zoom bomber expressed that he liked “big juicy ****” in his mouth. Another troll sarcastically asked what “Allahu Ackbar” had meant.
Alarcon and the event organizers were confused at their abrupt appearance.
“We’re going to continue to have our conversations.” Undeterred Zoom call host Dionne Espinoza
However, it was immediately clear to everyone in the Zoom call that they were not there for the lecture and that they were actively sabotaging the event … READ MORE.
HOW THEY DID IT:
Beware Zoom Users: Here’s How People Can ‘Zoom-Bomb’ Your Chat
Kate O’Flaherty, FORBES Senior Contributor, Mar 27, 2020
Picture the scene: You are logging into a business meeting using the popular online video app Zoom. Once into the Zoom meeting, each participant starts to introduce themselves, until, suddenly, screaming–and an uninvited young woman appears waving manically at the screen.
This is the new COVID-19 reality: If you are using Zoom without the right precautions, you are vulnerable to a practice known as “Zoom-bombing.” This sees uninvited attendees viewing your business meeting, or worse, sharing pornographic images and content.
No one’s immune from this threat. Take, for example, founder and editor in chief of tech website The Information, Jessica Lessin, who tweeted a week ago about how her video call was hijacked by someone who shared pornography …
