WASHINGTON – As the coronavirus has spread across the world, schools and universities are increasingly moving to remote learning online through apps such as Zoom. But the shift has left meetings susceptible to ‘Zoombombing’ by antisemites and white nationalists. According to the Anti Defamation League (ADL), a webinar about antisemitism hosted last week by a Massachusetts Jewish student group was interrupted by a white supremacist. The man “pulled his shirt collar down to reveal a swastika tattoo on his chest,” ADL said in a blog post. “The Center on Extremism examined a screenshot of the individual and believes him to be Andrew Alan Escher Auernheimer, a known white supremacist and hacker,” the organization added. “Auernheimer has referred to himself as a “white nationalist hacktivist,” and previously was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison, where he served slightly more than a year on federal charges related to computer hacking,” ADL said. And that’s not the only incident of antisemitic interruption for online gatherings, a phenomenon called ‘Zoombombing.’ NBC News reported that last week, during a Torah lesson by Rabbi Asher Weiss, “someone unmuted and shouted, ‘Hitler did nothing wrong.’ Soon after, someone made their background on Zoom a picture of a kid holding ‘Mein Kampf’ and people on the call started shouting, ‘Heil Hitler.’” In Thousand Oaks, California, an online school board meeting was reportedly interrupted with pornographic images, as well as a Nazi flag and swastika. “While some of these reported Zoombombing incidents can be attributed to internet trolls without particularly malicious intentions, there is concern that extremists could exploit the increasing reliance on video conferencing technology to target certain groups or advance their hateful messages,” ADL said on the blog post. “While, to date, there has been limited online chatter among extremists about the specific strategy of abusing video conferencing technology, Auernheimer’s recent actions in Massachusetts demonstrate the potential for extremists to exploit these systems,” the ADL added. The organization went on to publish a document that explains how to avoid “Zoombombing.” Among the tips: disable auto-saving chats and screen sharing for non-hosts; use per-meeting ID, not personal ID; disable “Join Before Host”; and enable “Waiting Room.” Once a Zoom meeting has started, ADL recommends assigning at least two co-hosts, to mute all participants and to lock the meeting, if all attendees are present.
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