Police have been called in to investigate what Zoom chiefs have condemned as the “horrible” hijacking of an online Angus Council meeting which saw participants subjected to porn images and indecent abuse.
The plug was pulled on the second of the authority’s Special Arrangements Committee (SAC) meetings on Tuesday after the remote proceedings were infiltrated by several unwelcome guest profiles.
Angus officials resumed the meeting after a short break, but members of the public who had logged in with a genuine interest in the agenda matters were blocked from re-joining.
Council leader David Fairweather branded those who had put the obscene messages and pictures on screen as “idiots”.
The authority has now confirmed the matter has been reported to Police Scotland.
Angus was one of the first councils in Scotland to set up remote meetings but has now found itself the latest victim of so-called Zoombombing, in which attendees at meetings using the online app have delivered a bombardment of offensive material in an effort to disrupt proceedings.
Zoom said such incidents were “horrible to hear about” and have urged victims to report them to the company or police.
A company spokesperson said: “We have been deeply upset to hear about these types of incidents.
“Zoom strongly condemns such behaviour and recently updated several features to help our users more easily protect their meetings.
“For all users, we have made the Zoom Meeting ID less visible to help prevent unintended sharing, and we have added a new security icon to the Zoom meeting controls for all hosts to help them quickly access in-meeting security features, including the ability to remove participants and lock meetings, among other actions.
“In the latest version of Zoom, there is a new ‘Report a User’ feature in the security icon for meeting hosts and co-hosts to flag users, who are misusing the platform, to our Trust & Safety team. “
The company added: “Through our offering of training, tutorials and webinars, including our CEO Eric Yuan’s weekly privacy and security webinar, Zoom is continuing to engage with all of our users on how they can best use Zoom and protect their meetings.
“We encourage users to report any incidents of this kind either to Zoom so we can take appropriate action, or directly to law enforcement authorities.”
A council spokesperson said: “The matters that took place during an online Angus Council committee meeting have been reported to Police Scotland and as such it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”
The next remote council meeting is a further SAC scheduled for May 26.
