We've not heard from Zoom in a while, and now:
Zoom shut down a series of events meant to discuss what organizers called “censorship” by the company.
The events were planned for Oct. 23, and were organized in response to a previous cancellation by Zoom of a San Francisco State University talk by Leila Khalid, a member of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror organization in the US. Khalid is best known for highjacking two planes, one in 1969 and one in 1970.
Zoom told the Verge at the time that the Sept. 23 talk was in violation of the company’s terms of service. The Verge also reported that the action was in response to pressure by Jewish and Israel lobby groups, such as The Lawfare project.
Lytvynenko, Jane. 2020. “Zoom Deleted Events Discussing Zoom ‘Censorship.’” BuzzFeed News. October 24, 2020. https://web.archive.orghttps://web.archive.org/web/20201026121052/https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/zoom-deleted-events-censorship.
Zoom claim that their terms of service were violated and would, at the same time, not say which terms of use were actually violated. The Zoom account used was that of a student, and it's now disabled; the student has contacted Zoom's support department and (so far) has received no response.
There are far more deepening issues than that of temporary censorship here.
Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at NYU who organized the event in conjunction with the American Association of University Professors, called the situation “absurdist.”
“Everyone working in higher education right now depends on Zoom and we cannot be in a position of allowing a corporate, third-party vendor to make these kinds of decisions,” Ross said. “It’s simply unsustainable.”
Lytvynenko, Jane. 2020. “Zoom Deleted Events Discussing Zoom ‘Censorship.’” BuzzFeed News. October 24, 2020. https://web.archive.orghttps://web.archive.org/web/20201026121052/https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/zoom-deleted-events-censorship.
This is the gist if the main issue for myself:
“Universities tend to get into these lucrative contracts with Zoom, and more or less handed over this very fragile power to decide what is acceptable academic speech and what is not,” said Ross. “For those of us who work in the field of supporting and protecting Palestinian rights, it's no surprise to us that Palestinian speech is the first to be cracked down on.”
Lytvynenko, Jane. 2020. “Zoom Deleted Events Discussing Zoom ‘Censorship.’” BuzzFeed News. October 24, 2020. https://web.archive.orghttps://web.archive.org/web/20201026121052/https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/zoom-deleted-events-censorship.
What'll happen when a conference is scheduled by somebody who's a Zoom customer and making a product that goes against Chinese-state interests? Will that conference be censored as well? Zoom operates via China and have already closed a Chinese activist's Zoom account simply because the Chinese government asked them to.
These soulless capitalists are now trying to tell academia what free speech is about? Please.
Again: don't use Zoom. Use Jitsi Meet or Element.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://niklasblog.com/?p=25460