Zoom says China asked it to censor pro-democracy activists in US and it obeyed

[Warboy]

Zoom Video Communications Inc. said it deactivated accounts of pro-democracy Chinese activists based in the U.S. at the request of China, intensifying concerns that Beijing is extending its censorship clout globally.

Chinese officials reached out to Zoom in May and early June about four videoconference calls that were publicized on social media to commemorate Tiananmen Square protests, the San Jose, California-based company said Thursday in a blog post. Zoom said that China “demanded” the company terminate the meetings and host accounts because of the activity, which it deemed illegal.

 

Source - ThePrint and Japan Times

 

This presents a interesting problem.  I'm very against one country bending a company's arm to handle a user in a completely different country. What other companies could China affect to be against Western culture? 

[Drama Lama]

China is a powerful country and if you have seen what happened with the NBA after one NBA official posted solidarity with Hongkong you understand why the zoomers don’t want to get into the focus of Chinese government 

[Tech_Dreamer]

[Statik]

1 minute ago, Drama Lama said:

China is a powerful country and if you have seen what happened with the NBA after one NBA official posted solidarity with Hongkong you understand why the zoomers don’t want to get into the focus of Chinese government 

I seem to have missed this. What happened?

[Drama Lama]

1 minute ago, Statik said:

I seem to have missed this. What happened?

One NBA official posted he stands together with Hongkong protestors or something and China made sanctions against nba I don’t remember the details 

but the case showed the pure might of China government 

[Drama Lama]

Just now, Drama Lama said:

One NBA official posted he stands together with Hongkong protestors or something and China made sanctions against nba I don’t remember the details 

but the case showed the pure might of China government 

So like I said Zoom knows they better don’t make them ask twice 

[Touch My Hamm]

well its a good thing I dont use or endorse Zoom at all. its terrible security holed software used by people who dont try researching other options. 

[5x5]

Brb, buying my nudes back from China

[Tech_Dreamer]

Technically i don't think this is a "HUGE news" or whatever . you see the same behavior with online targeted censoring on activists & political bias news in literally every region all over the globe. we just hear about those that get out into mainstream or coming from political opposition. Though this sounds sorta frustrating , it's a "whose hands have less blood" kinda thing.  every online platform does this.

[ARikozuM]

The gov'ts should just pay for any true and accountable losses in remaining non-compliant to the Chinese gov't. "The only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for all good [companies] to do nothing". 

[Eaglerino]

kinda getting tired of companies bending over so easily for china i have to admit

[TetraSky]

There might be other reasons as to why they complied. While the Zoom app itself is banned in China (as with nearly anything else that isn't directly controlled by the CCP), it's not like they don't have any business there.
Because even though they are based in San Jose, they actually have a development team in China
https://technode.com/2020/04/13/is-zoom-crazy-to-count-on-chinese-rd/

Hence why they'd have no choice but to obey, lest they want to get the full might of China bearing down on their lowly employees (among the other things they can do, like taking possession of the code)

[Trik'Stari]

1 hour ago, Drama Lama said:

One NBA official posted he stands together with Hongkong protestors or something and China made sanctions against nba I don’t remember the details 

but the case showed the pure might of China government 

I still wish the government would make a move against the NBA for doing that.

 

We really need to start punishing companies for doing shit like this at China's behest. Some form of economic harm. Maybe revoking a business license or two?

[mr moose]

2 hours ago, Warboy said:

 

. What other companies could China affect to be against Western culture? 

All of them.  When you have a choice between sales money in China or blocking a handful of people that are of no consequence to your bottom line you choose the money?

 

EDIT: P.S western culture isn't under threat, in fact it is growing around the world.  China is the loudest one holding onto their culture (they aren't necessarily against western culture, they are just against losing control).

[Teddy07]

1 hour ago, Eaglerino said:

kinda getting tired of companies bending over so easily for china i have to admit

kinda getting tired of companies bending over so easily for USA i have to admit

[Warboy]

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

All of them.  When you have a choice between sales money in China or blocking a handful of people that are of no consequence to your bottom line you choose the money?

 

EDIT: P.S western culture isn't under threat, in fact it is growing around the world.  China is the loudest one holding onto their culture (they aren't necessarily against western culture, they are just against losing control).

They don't even operate in China....so it would be no consequence for ignoring china either.

[Zodiark1593]

2 hours ago, TetraSky said:

 

(among the other things they can do, like taking possession of the code)

Nothing that robust encryption and careful implementation can’t solve. Though life would suck for the employees.

 

[Tellos]

Glad my company uses teams....never thought I'd be glad to used a MS product over another.

[Delicieuxz]

3 hours ago, Trik'Stari said:

I still wish the government would make a move against the NBA for doing that.

 

We really need to start punishing companies for doing shit like this at China's behest. Some form of economic harm. Maybe revoking a business license or two?

The US does the exact same thing all the time, though - intimidating others into doing what the US wants or face repercussions, especially sanctions - and has been doing it for far longer than we've been hearing about China doing it. Maybe China is just learning from the US.

 

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[Bombastinator]

6 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

The gov'ts should just pay for any true and accountable losses in remaining non-compliant to the Chinese gov't. "The only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for all good [companies] to do nothing". 

“The government should just pay” is a solution that can heal many problems.  The problem is pay with what?  For 40 years the amount of money the government collects has been reduced year on year because of claims of “waste” which often turn out to be issues that eventually come back to haunt the country in question.  The problem is there’s no money left.   To accommodate the rich things have slowly been cut to the bone and then into the bone, then lopped off.  Now the rich are so powerful they say “if you try to take it back I’ll just leave” and there isn’t a lot that can be done, except perhaps shoot the rich or destroy the areas they would leave to and those are both very extreme.

[wanderingfool2]

Zoom got too big too fast by the looks of it (and they weren't prepared for what they might face)

[mr moose]

5 hours ago, Warboy said:

They don't even operate in China....so it would be no consequence for ignoring china either.

Yes they do, they just don't allow individuals to host meetings,  you have to have a business register to get a host account.   Probably just another Chinese government demand.

[williamcll]

Ah yes another episode of foreign funded activists complaining about Californian software.

 

The whole "Federal state of China" stream last week was hilariously stupid.

[captain_to_fire]

Why bother with Zoom when Google Meet is better? With Google Meet, you don’t need to install a program for PC and Mac, it’s integrated with GSuite and Gmail, and it’s much simpler to use. 
 

The only advantage Zoom has is that any participant/s can natively record the meeting and save as a video file, whereas with Google Meet only organizers and teachers can record the meeting. 

[Doobeedoo]

Ahahaha, imagine obeying KEKW

They'd be fine with communism for all shouts haha.