Georgia
Related: About this forumRacist 'Zoombombers' Target Minority Communities at UGA
Athens-Clarke County Commissioner Mariah Parker virtually attended a Phi Kappa Literary Society meeting on Nov. 17 to discuss anti-racism allyship with members of the University of Georgia community. But the tone of the conversation quickly changed when an anonymous user used racial and homophobic slurs, saying they believe Jewish, Black and LGBTQ people should burn during a Q-and-A portion of the meeting.
A second voice started repeatedly yelling a racial slur, prompting the meetings host to scramble to kick out the user as others attempted to join the call in a coordinated attack, Parker said. The host finally decided to end the call and discretely shared a new link with the audience. The university is still investigating the incident, said James Hataway, media relations manager for UGAs Marketing and Communication office.
We never saw the faces of the people that did it, Parker said. They can jump on, ruin your day and leave without any consequences, as opposed to the bravery it actually takes just to speak what you think is truth to power in a physical space. This is a new way of low-stakes terrorism.
Emboldened Online
The world embraced the new normal by shifting from in-person meetings to online video calls as the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to socially distance from one another, but these virtual meetings give bad actors a new way to infiltrate conversations and spread hurtful words and threats. This was but one of several Zoombombings experienced by members of the UGA and Athens communities this year.
Read more: https://flagpole.com/news/news-features/2020/12/16/racist-zoombombers-target-minority-communities-at-uga/
Response to TexasTowelie (Original post)
CatLady78 This message was self-deleted by its author.
Bernardo de La Paz
(50,849 posts)Could add more adjectives and nouns, but it is not terrorism. It steps on true victims of terrorism to call it "terrorism".
In person, it would be a "disturbing the peace" violation or possibly assault if anyone feared for life or limb. Online it might rise to psychological assault. There could be conspiracy involved.
Certainly hate crimes could be charged.
The software needs to provide more controls to hosts.
The Zoom company needs to be more proactive about blocking IP addresses. Yes, sophisticated bombers can shift IP addresses, but most "low-stakes" disruptors can't be bothered or haven't figured it out. There are other countermeasures the company could provide if they weren't lazy. The company needs to be called out and forced to step up.
samnsara
(18,281 posts)...on the computer