Not to be forgotten during this time of sadness and uncertainty, internet trolls have taken to recording themselves interrupting Zoom conversations and posting videos of the event to YouTube and TikTok. It's a trend no one seemed prepared for, resulting from a trend no one seemed prepared for (Zoom's exploding popularity), resulting from a global pandemic...
Zoombombing, a term that will surely make its way into dictionaries by the end of 2020, is the act of joining a group video chat uninvited, usually for the purposes of getting a reaction out of the members. It's essentially just a high-tech prank and while levity is important right now, people are relying on video chats for work and school. The occasional joke is probably harmless, but now that the Zoombombing trend is becoming a spectator event, it could quickly get out of hand.
YouTube and TikTok fans seem to love pranks and these trolls are not only delivering but doing so in the most offensive ways possible. PCMag reports multiple instances of Zoombombers recording themselves hijacking Zoom chats and either drawing swastikas, making verbal and sexual threats, or spouting hate speech. It's telling that the more mild Zoombombing videos feature the perpetrator yelling obscenities at the hapless Zoom users. These recordings have made their way to video platforms, which now means there's an audience of people subscribing to Zoombombing content, exacerbating the problem. That phenomenon begat Zoom "raids" where a troll will request their audience finds Zoom chats to sic them upon. It's creative, but it's also yet another disruption to which people will have to react.
YouTube and TikTok's Responses to Zoombombing Videos
As expected, neither YouTube nor TikTok has a plan for what to do about these videos. In YouTube's case, it does have rules about hate speech and sexual conduct, so the worst offenders have already been banned or otherwise punished. There's nothing in YouTube's policies about pranking people or just being a nuisance though, so the service is full of videos of people screaming profanities at online class sessions, church meetups, and alcoholism support groups. On a positive note, Zoombombing has become such a major issue that the overwhelming majority of YouTube's results after searching for "zoombombing" or "zoom prank" are videos about how to use Zoom safely. Additionally, because most Zoom chats show each user's real name and face, anyone captured in a Zoombombing prank video can request the video be taken down and YouTube will likely honor that plea.
As of this writing, there hasn't been a public reaction from TikTok overall, but it has banned one Zoombombing "star". The woman, who claims she started Zoombombing as a way to sit in on classes, eventually moved on to raids and had her account banned. She's opened a new account since then and plans to continue Zoombombing, per Insider.
Zoom has issued a statement apologizing for the inconvenience and reminding users that their privacy settings can prevent Zoombombing entirely. While that is true, the platform's various other security issues loom much more threateningly.