Article 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.
It's time for western companies to stop pretending it's possible to be economically successful in China whilst remaining true to their purported western values.
Speculation: Chinese zoom users were required to switch to Chinese version of Zoom last September. There were probably mainland users using international version + VPN to participate in the event, probably some sort of local regulation that prevents users in CN from interacting with international meets, especially on no-no subjects. From 2nd link below:
>>Intensifying international tensions and the country’s upcoming 70th anniversary are cited as reasons for the block, according to Chinese media.
To be fair, many of the participants on the call were probably in the government's employ, so they got a realtime feed. BLM activists have to watch out for the same thing: lots of FBI and big-city police CIs.
> 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.
But why close the US rather than close the Chinese accounts?
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.
I assume you're getting downvoted because you don't seem to take issue with censorship of free speech ultimately being a problem, and why people take stand against tyrants?
Do you care to explain why? Because what I said is factual.
They stated they aim to "limit the actions we take to those necessary to comply with local law", in this case their action went beyond that limit, and now that they're aware, they fixed it.
And I see no evidence otherwise -- this is not something they've shown any pattern of behavior in. It appears to be a one-off.
Any conspiracy-mongering that Zoom is nefariously in cahoots with the Chinese government to intentionally try to sneak in an extra blocked account just begs credulity.
I'm not the only one who was waiting for the cover up lie for this incidence.
"if they make an excuse AFTER THIS STORY BLOWS UP, I think it's reasonable to consider their justification "retconned" and not actually the real reason they closed the account (which can be reasonably inferred to be CCP-aligned censorship)."
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23481177
It's also not the first time an American company would lockup a non-chinese user's account for saying/doing something china doesn't like.
A famous example is Blizzard's banning of a Hong Kong protester's account, seizing his earnings and backtracked after the story went viral.
The issue is that events like this break the fourth wall and remind us that companies are willing to bend over to make profits in countries controlled by tyrannical structures like the CCP, meanwhile we then are indirectly supporting the same behaviour of bad actors.
Explain to me how using Zoom in the US indirectly supports the CCP?
Because I don't see it. A huuuge segment of the American economy is based on trade with China. Just like we use gasoline that comes from Saudi Arabia.
Unless you're arguing that we cut off all free trade with countries that abuse human rights, using Zoom is no different from buying a water bottle at REI in this particular instance.
Also, there's a well-known theory [1] that rising economic living standards ultimately promote greater democracy and human rights, as the people in a country reach suddenly have the ability to demand more. We've already seen that happening in the past 10 years in China, particularly when it comes to corruption and environmentalism. According to that, the more we do business with China, and the higher standard of living they therefore more quickly achieve, the sooner they can pressure their government for more human rights. Now I'm not saying this is an inevitability or anything, in fact it's a hotly contested theory particularly with regards to China -- but I am saying that "boycott companies that do business in China" isn't crystal-clear morally superior. The reality is complicated.
The problem is china's problem is not contained within china. CCP will force Zoom or any other companies to give the data they collect in other countries and due to market forces those companies has to comply legally or otherwise. Now do you see the problem, why china's authority to censor the internet is not an isolated issue ?
It wasn’t an accident. They prob got a stern call from the CCP and they bent over and apologised and said they would block the accounts. Not expecting it to become a news piece.
In any case seems a paid user who’s calls are encrypted are not encrypted if a china based person joins the call. Making zoom a monitoring tool.
> 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.