SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) – Late at night on Friday, April 17, members of Syracuse University College Democrats received a mass email about their 2020 convention – College Dems’ largest gathering of the year. The convention’s kickoff had been zoombombed – entered by an internet troll and disrupted with inappropriate content – and new safeguards were being put in place. There were registration links for the coming events; members were asked to respond if they wanted to attend. A list of names was being sent to the organization’s president. Most importantly, the email said, do not share the links.
“I haven’t had any experiences with [zoombombing] with my classes, or any of my extracurricular orgs that we’ve been using Zoom for,” said SU College Democrats’ newly elected president, Emma Peca. “After the zoombombing, they sent out registration links for Saturday and Sunday, and all the chapter presidents were required to give an e-board member from CDNY a heads up of who’s going to be on the call. Everything was fine after that.”
The convention is just one of many classes, meetings, and events zoombombed in the past few weeks, but their response highlights a possible course of action for other event organizers in the future. According to Peca, the convention’s sessions have gone smoothly since security was increased; if an event were to use private links and registration forms from day one, it’s likely zoombombing would be much more easily avoidable.
“What you have to hope for is that people will use these resources responsibly, and share them responsibly,” Peca said.
