Social-Media
Zoom Catches Shuttle Heat Down Chinese Account Party
(WSJ) Zoom Video Communications Inc. asked a number of questions about its relations with the China Government when, soon after its video-conference on the massacre on Tiananmen Square in 1989, it shut down the account of a US human rights organization.
Humanitarian China, San Francisco based, said that the account was closed without notice or explanation from the video-conference platform while trying to access this platform on Sunday. Zoom quietly reactivated Wednesday's account, Zhou Fengsuo, president of the humanitarian China, after the news organization Axios reported that the report was shutdown.
He said that many other video conferencing sites like Google Meet are blocked in mainland China, the home base for many Tiananmen commemoration participants. "This is a big retrograde occurrence," he said. "This is a veteran Tienanmen based in Newark, NJ.
The closure was defended by Zoom who said it had "like any global corporation" to comply with local laws.
"The participants in these countries must comply with their national laws when a meeting is held throughout the countries," said a speaker of the company.
The temporary shutdown has given rise to concerns among users about Chinese government monitoring. Mr. Zhou and others said they wished to know when and how Zoom found a violation of local laws in the Humanitarian China account and whether Beijing was being provided with user account information, but said that it would change its processes to protect further users from 'those who want to stifle their communications.'
In April, researchers from the University of Toronto-affiliated Security Research Group Citizen Lab said that Zoom stored encryption keys — long strings of numbers and character to be used for encoded communications — on servers in China, under some circumstances.
The company said that meeting data were mistakenly sent via China 's servers when traffic increased in February, a problem that has been resolved.
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said earlier that the Chinese Government never demanded details about international traffic. Authorities on the mainland of China, where the firm registered officially last year, are concerned only with local meetings, he said.
Human rights activists condemned the closure of the humanitarian Chinese account after its event in Tiananmen Square, which attracted over 250 visitors worldwide. Humanitarian China said a Hong Kong-based pro-democracy group denounced its Zoom account after an event of critical importance to China had shut off its own temporary closure.
Zoom can not serve as a choice virtual platform for enterprises, schools and organisations, while also acting as "Chinese Government's long arm", "said PEN America's CEO Suzanne Nossel.
The news spake about the use of Zoom for remote courses which discuss Chinese issues. The news spawned Twitter among China's scholars.
James Millward, Professor of Chinese History at Georgetown University, wrote: "We can not make a company that is so integral to our teaching if it engages in PRC censorship.
In recent years , global technology companies have increasingly tackled censorship issues related to the government of China, especially in the social media industry.
After U.S. senators expressed concern that videos would be censored to ease Peking, the U.S. launched the last year a National-Security review of TicTok — a popular short video platform owned by Beijing Bytedance Technology Co.
In 2014, after some U.S.-based users protested that their posts marking the 25th anniversaire of Tiananmen Square crackdown were blocked, LinkedIn Corp., which operates a separate, censored networking site in China.
"China is not only ready, but able to use corporate ties and addictions as a way of implementing its global agenda and of exploring divisional perspectives," said David Bandurski, co-director of the China Media Project, which studies censorship from the University of Hong Kong.
The impact of Beijing on American technological companies' operations is a growing challenge to freedom of expression outside China, said Mr. Zhou, Chinese Humanitarian CEO.
"America" Companies will act in accordance with the wishes of Beijing, "he said. "All the laws are now laid down by Beijing online and in technology. In order to deal with this issue, the US must have a complete, clear and coherent policy.
Source: Wall Street Journal by Eva Xiao
