Back
in April, the University
of Toronto’s Citizen Lab revealed that a Zoom meeting between users located in
Canada and the United States was routed through China. The
communications platform, which during the pandemic has become the go-to medium
to connect with family, friends, and colleagues, admitted
the diversion of data thousands of miles away was “mistakenly” done.
The company quickly moved to assure users there are no implications for the
privacy of communications, and that the company would take measures to rectify
the mistake.
Now,
Zoom is again in the news. On 4 June, accounts of Hong Kong- and US-based
pro-democracy activists who used Zoom to hold an event commemorating the 31st
anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre were shuttered. Zoom justified
that as a company, its operations
are subject to local laws. Even though the hosts of the meeting
was outside of China, Zoom argued it simply complied with demands by the
Chinese government the virtual meetings and accounts be terminated. After much
(social) media
backlash, some accounts were later reinstated.
Curiously, just one day earlier, Zoom’s own security
consultant declared “Zoom does not proactively monitor
content in meetings and will not in the future. Zoom doesn't record meetings
silently. Neither of these will change”.
Yet, how does Zoom know about the vigils held to remember
the crackdown on democracy, and the users who were attending these online
vigils? And whatever happened to those users in China and whose accounts have
not been reinstated?
The
latest news is evidence that the company is actively monitoring and censoring
communications of its users inside and outside of China. These concerns have
already been raised about the NASDAQ-listed company, and the likes of SpaceX
and NASA, as well as governments around the world, including Germany,
Australia, and Taiwan, have banned or restricted the use of Zoom for these very
reasons. In highlighting the surge of foreign cyberespionage in
COVID-19-related research facilitated through remote working platforms,
Canada’s own intelligence agency, the Communications Security Establishment,
singled out Zoom and the fact that user communications were routed through
servers in China.
Twitter, Facebook and Google are also in the business of
connecting people and facilitating communications. Like Zoom, these
corporations operate in the cyber domain that is arguably beyond the
jurisdiction of any State. However, the Chinese government has made clear at
the United Nations that together Huawei, they wish to “reinvent”
the internet to give governments more control over
content and user data. The latest debacle surrounding Zoom is a sign of things
to come.
Zoom self-proclaims to “fully [support] the open exchange
of ideas and conversations”, yet unlike other platforms, it willingly submits
itself to demands of an authoritarian government. This is a concern for all
Canadians, and we must think carefully before signing in and unwittingly
signing away our privacies and freedoms.
