Zoom is ready to update with a new function designed to block those who disturb chat. Here’s how it works
As of April 26, the Zoom video calling and video conferencing platform could become a safer and cleaner place. As announced in recent weeks by Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan in an interview with CNN, the first measures against ” zoo bombing ” are coming.
That is, that annoying practice that consists in sneaking into a public video call to pronounce swear words, offences or blasphemies or to perform obscene acts such as projecting pornographic material. We are not yet able to block a single user, but we could get there shortly if the new functionality introduced by the Zoom developers had the desired effects. It is, in essence, a report of the profiles that do zoo bombing which, subsequently, could be followed by a ban. But the user will not decide it.
Ban on Zoom, how it works
Account owners and Meeting administrators on Zoom will be able to enable a setting to allow the host to report participants to the call. This function will generate a report that will be sent to the ” Zoom Trust and Safety ” team, which will evaluate any improper use of the platform and may even block the disturbing user if deemed necessary. The ability to report an account to the Zoom team will be introduced in the version of the client that will be released on April 26, 2020.
The boom of zoombombing
Zoom experienced exponential growth in the months of March and April, due to the boom in smart working and video calls, replacing face-to-face meetings that are no longer possible due to social distancing. The problem, however, is that the app was not at all ready for such a fast and unexpected success, and its limits emerged immediately. The zoombombing , for example, comes from a trivial mistake. Until a few days ago the data to access a video was shown in the main screen of the app and, therefore, anyone sharing a screenshot of the video did nothing but spread the door (open) to enter to disturb. A second problem, then, is the security of data transmitted on Zoom. In essence, the encryption has been judged by several experts too weak and, therefore, starting from the next version of the Zoom client a much more robust AES-256 encryption will replace it.