City of Providence Attacked Again on Zoom - Racist, Anti-Semitic, Homophobic & Misogynistic Language

City of Providence Attacked Again on Zoom - Racist, Anti-Semitic, Homophobic & Misogynistic Language

The City Council Finance Committee public hearing held on Tuesday night was interrupted by what Council President Sabina Matos called a "spew of hatred."

This is the second time a City of Providence public meeting held on video conferencing site Zoom has been attacked.

"In an effort to ensure transparency and accessible government, a few individuals took advantage of the anonymity of remote participation and used it as an opportunity to spew hatred," said Matos.

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In a phone interview with GoLocal she said that the budget hearing will be rescheduled immediately.

"Please know that you have our deepest apologies for the racist, antiemetic, homophobic, and misogynistic language that was used by these callers," said Matos.

Latest Online Hack for Providence

In April, a rally held on Zoom to kick-off the 2020 Census count in Rhode Island was also hacked. 

The event, billed as being hosted by the Providence City Council, Mayor Jorge Elorza, Mayor Diossa and the RI Complete Count Committee, was trolled by meeting attendees who posted racist and expletive-filled messages during the online event.

"F--k  [n-word]" was posted on the public forum, along with explicit photos.

After that April incident, City Council Press Secretary Billy Kepner provided the following statement:

"When you do anything with the public, people can access it, and unfortunately it happened," said Kepner. "We removed it as quickly as we could. That's a problem with using a [video-conferencing] service."

"This wasn't a hack -- this was someone who logged on,' said Kepner. "There were people doing and showing inappropriate things and we removed them immediately."

"This is the challenge people will have using Zoom or [similar services]," said Kepner.  "Most people were looking at the main screen where the speakers were and I removed [the offending] profiles as quickly as I could."

Officials in New York City Schools have banned the use of Zoom for remote teaching, citing security concerns with the video conferencing service.

In California, Berkeley High School officials have suspended use of the app after a "naked adult male using racial slurs" entered a classroom meeting that was reportedly password-protected, according to The Hill.

“Providing a safe and secure remote learning experience for our students is essential, and upon further review of security concerns, schools should move away from using Zoom as soon as possible,” said Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Education. “There are many new components to remote learning, and we are making real-time decisions in the best interest of our staff and students.”

Providence Schools use Zoom for online education.

This story was first published at 6/9/20 at 8:17 PM