Zoom to Obey Laws of All Countries, Can Allow Censorship of Accounts; Here's How It Will Affect Users
Privacy activists fear that China may set an example before other countries as well to silence Zoom accounts which are critical of them. The accounts which were barred by the application were participating in video-calls to plan Tiananmen Square massacre commemoration events.
Hong Kong, June 15: After Zoom came under fire for suspending the account of two Hong Kong-based anti-China activist and one citizen of the United States - on China's request - the company released a statement admitting that it has to obey to domestic laws. In other words, the video-conferencing application would have to adhere to the calls issued by the jurisdiction under which the user account operates. Queen Elizabeth Joins Princess Anne on Zoom Call as First Public Video Emerges From Windsor Castle to Celebrate Carers Week 2020 in UK.
Privacy activists fear that China may set an example before other countries as well to silence Zoom accounts which are critical of them. The accounts which were barred by the application were participating in video-calls to plan Tiananmen Square massacre commemoration events.
Under intense criticism over its decision to suspend the accounts, Zoom issued a statement to confirm that it had ceded to the Chinese government's direction. The company stated that it has to obey any laws in the jurisdictions it operates in.
In an updated statement to AFP on Thursday, Zoom said it was hosting "complex, cross-border conversations, for which the compliance with the laws of multiple countries is very difficult".
"We regret that a few recent meetings with participants both inside and outside of China were negatively impacted and important conversations were disrupted," it added.
The decision of Zoom to accept the directives issued by governments can adversely affect some of the netizens who use the app. Their privacy could be breached as a governmental body may ask the California-based company to submit details of the video-meetings that were held between a slew of accounts.
As per Zoom's own admission, it using the 256-bit GCM encryption to protect the platform from external breach. In absence of the end-to-end (E2E) encryption which applications such as the WhatsApp uses, a possibility exists that all the data shared on Zoom platform, including the recording of video meetings, are stored, say experts.
Another way in which a user could be affected is that his account could be suspended at any given time by the video-conferencing app.
PEN America, a group that defends free speech, said Zoom users outside of mainland China should not find themselves censored by Beijing.
"We wouldn't tolerate it if a phone company cut off service for someone expressing their views in a conference call; we shouldn't tolerate it in the digital space either," CEO Suzanne Nossel said.
Zoom is the latest in a long line of western social media and tech companies who have found themselves struggling to deal with the demands of authoritarian governments in lucrative overseas markets.
Tech giants such as Google and Facebook have largely given up on trying to crack China given the censorship Beijing enforces on companies that operate inside its borders.
Apple in 2017 acknowledged that it bowed to Chinese law by removing apps for virtual private networks (VPNs) that let users evade local controls.
A decade earlier, Yahoo faced intense criticism and conceded wrongdoing after helping Chinese officials identify pro-democracy advocates who posted on online message boards.
(With AFP Inputs)
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 15, 2020 07:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).