TikTok's Virtual Pride Event On Zoom Canceled After Homophobic And Racist Trolls Disrupt It

Minutes after it began, TikTok’s virtual pride hosted on Zoom Communications Inc’s ZM video call service had to be halted as uninvited trolls hijacked the event making “extremely hurtful” and “harmful comments.”

What Happened

Thursday’s day-long event organized by TikTok, a short-form video platform, for hundreds of LGBTQ creators spanned an agenda consisting of workshops, panels, and fireside chats with employees, but it had to be canceled on account of homophobic and racist harassment, reported Business Insider.

As soon as the “#MyPride” event began, trolls appeared on both text chat and the audio of the call and used offensive language targeting African Americans and LGBTQ minorities. 

A transcript of the call seen by Business Insider reveals the trolls made references to “Straight Pride,” Donald Trump and Chick-fil-A, a fast-food business that made large donations to anti-LGBTQ organizations.

The so-called Zoombombers disrupted an appearance on the chat by Vanessa Pappas, TikTok’s general manager in the United States, by blasting racial slurs on the audio. 

Subsequently, TikTok had to cancel the rest of the event.

Today's #MyPride event was meant to be a celebration of our community & of authenticity, self-love, & inclusivity. Unfortunately, some bad actors - who were not invited to the Zoom event - interrupted the start of the celebratory event with extremely hurtful, harmful comments.

— tiktokcreators (@tiktokcreators) June 25, 2020

Why It Matters

TikTok is coming under criticism from LGBTQ community for failing to secure the call.

A creator told Business Insider, "I was never confident in tiktok's idea of 'support' in the first place. it's actually quite obvious they don't care."

Zoom has been under fire for its lax security and has been making efforts to address vulnerabilities. 

Security researchers have pointed out problems like lack of encryption on the platform and the ability of hackers to guess meeting IDs and get root access.

Zoom’s Version 5 was supposed to address weaknesses that allow Zoombombing, the act of entering video calls in an unauthorized manner to disseminate racial slurs, profanity, or pornography.

The video conferencing company is now allowing end-to-end encryption for free users in an effort to further bolster security on its platform.

ZM Price Action

Zoom shares traded 0.42% higher at $260.61 in the after-hours session on Thursday. The shares had closed the regular session 1.41 % higher at $259.51.