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Zoom closes account of U.S.-based Chinese activist after Tiananmen event
291–300 of 562 posts
Re: Zoom closes account of U.S.-based Chinese activist after Tiananmen event
#292Article has been updated with a statement from Zoom:
> Update: 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.”
> — Zoom statement
> Between the lines: This suggests Zoom closed the account due to concerns in China, which forbids free discussion of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement.
Re: Zoom closes account of U.S.-based Chinese activist after Tiananmen event
#293I've certainly stuck my own neck out to defend Zoom against some of the FUD around it from a more technical, E2EE performance trade off angle: https://interconnected.blog/zoom-china-fud-performance-trade...
This development just made the company much less defensible...
Re: Zoom closes account of U.S.-based Chinese activist after Tiananmen event
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Is there any reason not to assume that the Chinese government is surveilling Zoom calls en masse? It makes perfect sense to boycott Zoom based on their security issues, but does the presumption of innocence mean nothing anymore? It shouldn't be difficult to prove that Zoom is actively trying to block Chinese activists. China banned Zoom during the trade war. Are you going to treat that as evidence that Zoom isn't c…
does the presumption of innocence mean nothing anymore In a court of law, yes. In the court of public opinion, it has never been that way. I don't blame people for being suspicious of Zoom. Why wait until the harm has already been done to move to something else? Zoom knows it has a credibility problem. If Zoom really cared, it would do something to distance itself from China and the Chinese government. But it doesn't…
I don't blame people for being suspicious of Zoom either. I just find it sad that so many readers of Hackernews are endorsing logic that is so unscientific.
Re: Zoom closes account of U.S.-based Chinese activist after Tiananmen event
#295Article has been updated with a statement from Zoom: > Update: 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 comp…
Yes, it seems like this was ultimately a bit of a nothingburger.
As much as we may not like it (and I certainly personally don't), China has the authority to censor the internet within its borders. Zoom literally has no choice but to follow China's law within China's borders, if it is to provide its product there at all.
Zoom accidentally deactivated a US-based account, and fixed it when they found out.
At worst, in this instance, they seem to simply be guilty of an administrative mistake and slow customer support.
Re: Zoom closes account of U.S.-based Chinese activist after Tiananmen event
#296It is ironic how the western public generally frowns upon the silencing of dissident throught in China, and at the same time welcomes precisely the same behavior for "sensitive topics" back home.
There is a vast difference between letting the government suppress speech, which is what China does, and letting private companies suppress speech, which is what happens in America. When the government does it, you can't express that idea anywhere. When private companies do it, you can still express those ideas somewhere else.
Remember when the American government got all the payment processors to blockade WikiLeaks because of political speech? Don't pretend that the American government doesn't suppress speech.
Re: Zoom closes account of U.S.-based Chinese activist after Tiananmen event
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've tried Google Meet, Jitsi, and some other things, but Zoom is the only service that my 6+ year old laptop can handle for more than 5 min without nosediving into 100% CPU usage and freezing up. Does anyone have other suggestions? Either for other services or for troubleshooting Jitsi?
Has everyone forgotten about Skype? My D&D group switched from Zoom to Skype and the performance/quality is noticeably better. There's 5 of us and it's great. Free, no time limits, etc.
My group (6 of us) did the oposite. We used to use Skype till we had continual problems of people getting infinite "loading" screens, we switched to Zoom the last 3 or 4 games because of it.
I have to say the video quality is much better and the DM being able to screen share while we can still see each other is great. Also the "Brady Bunch" view is great, being able to see everyone at once is awesome.
I'm not very happy with all of the news trickling out about Zoom but I really do like their product.
Re: Zoom closes account of U.S.-based Chinese activist after Tiananmen event
#298I feel like the good faith presumption for this company has to have shifted by now. Is there any reason not to assume that the Chinese government is surveilling Zoom calls en masse? Documenting participants (face, voice, language, location, etc.), recording content, etc. We're talking about the data of 200M+ users. I see people on HN defending Zoom all the time. >The company has acknowledged that much of its product…
> Is there any reason not to assume that the Chinese government is surveilling Zoom calls en masse? It makes perfect sense to boycott Zoom based on their security issues, but does the presumption of innocence mean nothing anymore? It shouldn't be difficult to prove that Zoom is actively trying to block Chinese activists. China banned Zoom during the trade war. Are you going to treat that as evidence that Zoom isn't c…
Is it often that China unblocks a communication platform without them fully complying with the CCP’s desire to monitor and censor everything?
I can’t think of any major platforms that got banned and reinstated with zero changes. I’m treating that as evidence that they are colluding.
Re: Zoom closes account of U.S.-based Chinese activist after Tiananmen event
#299I wonder if we'll hear the "they're a private company, they can do what they want, it is only censorship if the government does it" routine. I remember about a decade ago when certain parties were so concerned with voices being silenced and "erasure." The same people are now cheering when Facebook, Twitter, and the like shut down certain kinds of speech, with great discretion as to how the "rules" are implemented. Th…
This xkcd comic didn't age well: https://xkcd.com/1357/ . Liberals used to cheerfully link to this whenever a conservative was deplatformed. I don't think they'll trot out this xkcd anymore when their favored people are being censored.
There’s a difference between a private company doing that on their own accord, and bowing to the CCP.
Re: Zoom closes account of U.S.-based Chinese activist after Tiananmen event
#300I feel like the good faith presumption for this company has to have shifted by now. Is there any reason not to assume that the Chinese government is surveilling Zoom calls en masse? Documenting participants (face, voice, language, location, etc.), recording content, etc. We're talking about the data of 200M+ users. I see people on HN defending Zoom all the time. >The company has acknowledged that much of its product…
> Is there any reason not to assume that the Chinese government is surveilling Zoom calls en masse?
The burden of proof lies on you to prove they are.