A bipartisan group of lawmakers including Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ben Sasse (R-NE) have written a letter to Zoom CEO Eric Yuan asking for answers after the teleconferencing company disabled accounts of two U.S.-based activists who were commemorating the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The disabling of the accounts came at the request of China’s communist government.
“We write with deep concern regarding reports that Zoom, a U.S.-based company, deactivated the accounts of two U.S.-based, pro-democracy Chinese activists after they held a Zoom meeting on the June 4th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre,” said the Friday letter. “Your company has admitted that it did so at the request of the Chinese government to comply with the laws of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), because some of the participants resided inside the PRC.”
Zhou Fengsuo, one of the two U.S-based activists, participated in the original Tiananmen Square protests as a student and has accused Zoom of collaborating with the Chinese regime, reports <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/11/zoom-suspends-us-based-activists-account-after-tiananmen-square-commemoration-event.html">CNBC News</a>.
“It seems possible ZOOM acted on pressure from the CCP (Communist Party of China) to shut down our account. If so, ZOOM is complicit in erasing the memories of the Tiananmen Massacre in collaboration with an authoritarian government,” said Zhou.
The death toll from the massacre is not known, but on the day of the crackdown, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/04/world/crackdown-beijing-troops-attack-crush-beijing-protest-thousands-fight-back.html">The New York Times</a> reported student protesters as believing that “at least 500 people” were killed after Chinese troops rolled into the area.
In a blog post the previous day, Zoom revealed that it had taken “adverse actions” against three activists, two in the United States and one based in Hong Kong. Zoom made the decision after China informed them the Tiananmen Square meetings were “illegal in China” and demanded the company ban the meetings and terminate the accounts.
“Our response should not have impacted users outside of mainland China,” said the company, which explained that three accounts were terminated or suspended, but they have all since been reinstated.
The company also suggested that instead of shutting down the accounts, they should have blocked access to the meetings by country, a feature Zoom does not currently have at their disposal. The teleconferencing company plans to develop this technology in the coming days, and said that they won’t let requests from the Chinese government “impact anyone outside of mainland China” in the future.
Toward the end of the Senate’s letter to Zoom, the lawmakers requested the company answer questions about its relationship with China and the recent incident banning activists, including a request that Zoom identify the laws China cited and whether Zoom pushed back against them.
Lee Cheuk Yan, the Hong Kong-based activist, told <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/12/876351501/zoom-acknowledges-it-suspended-activists-accounts-at-china-s-request">NPR</a> on Friday that his meeting was the third in a series of talks about authoritarianism in China.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

In this photo illustration a Zoom Video logo seen displayed

Zoom Facing Questions From Lawmakers After China Makes Successful Censorship Request

Censorship

China

Zoom

A bipartisan group of lawmakers including Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ben Sasse (R-NE) have written a letter to Zoom CEO Eric Yuan asking for answers

description

robots

index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1

googlebot

bingbot

Zoom Facing Questions From Lawmakers After China Makes Successful Censorship Request | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/zoom-facing-questions-from-lawmakers-after-china-makes-successful-censorship-request/

twitter:card

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/06/Zoom-scaled.jpg

twitter:image

A man in Singapore has been sentenced to death over Zoom.
Gizmodo <a href="https://gizmodo.com/alleged-drug-dealer-sentenced-to-death-by-hanging-via-z-1843559182">reported</a> that Punithan Genasan, a Malaysian national, was sentenced to death by hanging over the video conference platform for “allegedly introducing two drug dealers to each other in 2011.” He was extradited to Singapore in 2016 on charges of being “complicit in trafficking,” The Straits Times <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/drug-offender-gets-death-sentence-via-remote-hearing">reported</a>.
Genasan, a 37-year-old debt collector was implicated by the two drug couriers of masterminding a one-ounce (about 28.5 grams) sale of heroin. He allegedly told one courier to drive to Singapore to meet the other, the Times reported. More from the Times:
<blockquote>Punithan denied any connection to the pair and disputed their testimonies that he had recruited them to transport drugs, linked them up and arranged the transaction.
He called a friend and his wife as witnesses to support his claim.
But his alibi defence was rejected by High Court judge Chan Seng Onn, who pronounced the mandatory death penalty in a hearing on video-conferencing platform Zoom.
Justice Chan said the couriers had given detailed and cogent accounts of their relationships with Punithan. In contrast, Punithan was unable to explain how the couriers knew personal details about him.</blockquote>
The couriers were also convicted.  One was sentenced to life imprisonment and 15 lashings while the other was sentenced to death.
Gizmodo reported that Singapore has a “zero tolerance policy for drugs.” Due to the coronavirus lockdowns and social distancing rules, Genasan’s sentence was handed out over Zoom.
“It’s not clear if sentencing someone to death is against Zoom’s terms of service. Texas is currently experimenting with its first jury trial by Zoom, as Gizmodo reported <a href="https://gizmodo.com/texas-court-experimenting-with-its-first-zoom-jury-tria-1843519263">on Monday</a>. Zoom did not respond to an email sent early Wednesday, but human rights groups are understandably upset about the case in Singapore,” Gizmodo reported.”
Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia, told Gizmodo in an email that a man facing capital punishment should be able to confront his accusers in court, not over Zoom.
“The death penalty is inherently cruel and inhumane, and Singapore’s use of remote technology like Zoom to sentence a man to death makes it even more so,” Robertson told the outlet.
“It’s shocking the prosecutors and the court are so callous that they fail to see that a man facing capital punishment should have the right to be present in court to confront his accusers. The absolute finality of the sentence, and the reality that wrongful convictions do occur around the world in death sentence cases, raise serious concerns about why Singapore is rushing to conclude this case via Zoom,” he added. “Singapore tries to hide from the world that it executes scores of people every year but by remotely sentencing a man to die in this case, they have brought back welcome attention to their inherently rights violating practices.”
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Singapore flag

Singapore Sentences Drug Dealer To Death By Hanging Via Zoom

Death Penalty

Singapore

A man in Singapore has been sentenced to death over Zoom. Gizmodo reported that Punithan Genasan, a Malaysian national, was sentenced to death by hanging

Singapore Sentences Drug Dealer To Death By Hanging Via Zoom | The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com/news/singapore-sentences-drug-dealer-to-death-by-hanging-via-zoom/

https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/05/GettyImages-200563773-001.jpg

Menu

Zoom

Zoom Facing Questions From Lawmakers After China Makes Successful Censorship Request

Singapore Sentences Drug Dealer To Death By Hanging Via Zoom

40 days until election

Don't miss a beat of our coverage.