Communication expert explains why Zoom is a target for people to disrupt meetings
PORTAGE, Mich. — Virtual living has become the new way of meeting, working and communicating during the COVID-19 pandemic, but some people have decided to try to disrupt those meetings.
Local governments, churches and even staff at Newschannel 3 are relying on video conferencing as a way to get together without actually being together. But, a type of online party crasher can turn electronic meetings into all out disasters by getting into the meeting and Zoom bombing. Reyna Levine, NTT Cloud Communications, explained Zoom bombing as people invading a teleconference and making inappropriate comments or showing nasty images.
“I’m much busier now than I have ever been in my life,” Reyna Levine, NTT Cloud Communications, said.
Levine is in charge of producing digital meetings for large companies, like McDonalds and Johnson & Johnson, to make sure teleconference calls are secure.
On Tuesday, March 31, 2020, the Kalamazoo City Commission held their meeting on the Zoom app, only to be interrupted by people making racist or anti-Semitic comments.
Zoom bombing has become a popular trend that’s causing quite the disturbance for people trying to conduct business.
Levine said Zoom is considered a consumer-level platform in the virtual meeting world. It is not as customizable as other high-end platforms, which would give a host better control of a meeting.
She said local government, should consider investing in an option that gives them better control of meetings.
“So, for open meetings act for instance, you want to make sure that people have the ability to communicate their thoughts in the platform. But you want to make sure they can do it in a responsible and a respectful way. There are ways to configure that in the platform that can do that for you and specific software tailored for that that interaction. It’s just about choosing the right solution,” Levine said.
Cisco WebEx, Intrado or Adobe Connect are platforms she said helps host have better control of meetings.
The FBI is investigating Zoom bombings and wants you to report if you have been a victim.
