Zoom Closed Account of U.S.-Based Chinese Activist

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, reporting for Axios:

The U.S. video-conferencing company Zoom closed the account of a group of prominent U.S.-based Chinese activists after they held a Zoom event commemorating the 31st anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre, Axios has learned. […]

A Zoom spokesperson confirmed to Axios that the account had been closed “to comply with local law” and said it had now been re-activated.

Just like any global company, we must comply with applicable laws in the jurisdictions where we operate. When a meeting is held across different countries, the participants within those countries are required to comply with their respective local laws. We aim to limit the actions we take to those necessary to comply with local law and continuously review and improve our process on these matters. We have reactivated the US-based account.

If you’ve been paying even vague attention to DF these past few months you know I think Zoom is sketchy and untrustworthy in numerous ways. But one of the foundational reasons for this mistrust is that Zoom has strong ties to China. They employ hundreds of engineers in China, and were flagged for routing calls (that did not involve participants in China) through servers in China.

Now they shut down a U.S.-based account claiming it was “to comply with their respective local laws”. That makes no sense. Clearly Zoom closed the account to comply with Chinese law.

★ Thursday, 11 June 2020