During the lockdown in various countries, the usage of Zoom has peaked. Many companies and organizations across various countries have started using Zoom for the meeting purpose.
With that, trolling was also at the peak. People who are new to Zoom saw a lot of disruptions and trolling in online meetings. Even in the educational sessions, trolling and disruptions were a lot common.
Zoom has recently added some new features that will enhance the security of the application. This will let the participants report any user disrupting any meeting. This step was taken after people were misusing the features and using them for trolling purposes.
Problem with Zoom Meetings
With the rise of online virtual meeting, the trolls are also getting more active. The main purpose of internet trolls is to spoil the meeting. Unauthorized participants or disruption by an invited person is a lot more common in Zoom.
The term used for the disruption is Zoombambing. It has become a lot more common by the internal trolling to interfere in the meeting with the sole purpose to disrupt the meeting and cause a nuisance.
Not only in the educational meetings but the corporate meetings also saw the same level of trolling. This gave a negative experience to the users as well as a negative impression of the company.
Zoombambing is not a new thing that people are facing. Even before the lockdown, people were facing the same thing. However, these were not very common. Now, Zoom has gained a lot more users and many organizations have started using Zoom for virtual meetings during this global pandemic. As a result, more and more people are facing this issue.
By the end of April 2020, Zoom has more than 300 Million users. Now, it might have increased to many more. During the pandemic time, Zoom saw a 50% increase in the userbase.
Zoom has now taken various steps to stop this issue from happening again or at least prevent it. Therefore, Zoom has introduced various security enhancements that will help the host in detecting and then removing the online trolls. They have introduced a new tool as well as a couple of features to increase security.
The New Security Tool
Zoom has brought in a new tool called At-Risk Meeting Notifier. It comes inside the application. The tool will alert the host whenever there is a risk in the meeting. Whether it’s some kind of trolling by the people or there is some risk of being disrupted. The host will get a notification about the same whenever such things happen.
The tool scans various social media websites and online resources to find if the meeting link is being shared anywhere. If it finds any meeting link is being shared, it will directly notify the ost about the same. Zoom will first compare the link with the current meeting ID to ensure that they are the same meeting. If it’s the same, Zoom will notify the host about the same. The notification is only sent via email. The account owner as well as the admin will receive an email about the same thing.
If the tool detects that the meeting is being manipulated, the host will have several options to choose from. They can either modify the settings of the meetings. Alternatively, they can also deal with the current meeting and create a new one.
Zoom brought this tool to enhance the security of the application and to be sure that every meeting goes smoothly without any disruption.
Pause and Report
The next feature or enhancement that is seen in the Zoom application is the ability to pause the meeting. The host can now pause the meeting anytime they want. After pausing the meeting, Zoom allows the host to kick the disruptive user or the troll.
Using the above tool, the host can be notified about the user, and then the host can also kick them out.
To pause the meeting, the host has to click on the security icon on the top and then click on the “Suspend Participant Activities”. This will stop all the possible tings including audio, annotations, in-meeting chat, screen sharing, as well as it will stop the recording. The same thing applies in the room also. This will kick the user out in no time. After clicking on the suspend button, the breakout room will also be suspended.
To prevent further trolls by the same user, the host can report the user to Zoom. Zoom will block the account if needed. This will help Zoom from preventing further disruption by the same user.
Thereafter, the host can continue the meeting without that particular user.
As of now, the feature is not available for web clients and VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure). This will come in this year itself. These security features are available for both paid users as well as for free users. Along with this, the feature is available on all the devices whether you are using a desktop version or mobile version, you can use the feature. Therefore, many people will be taking advantage of the same feature as this is available for almost everyone.
User Report
With the new feature, even a participant can report a user to the host. Many times, the host who is new to Zoom won’t know about the trolling. Participants reporting the disruptive user can help the meeting continue peacefully without any trolling.
This will surely stop the nasty participants from trolling and disrupting the entire meeting. Again, the host can then report the user to Zoom if they want. After getting proper reports from several hosts, Zoom will take the action accordingly.
Final Take
These features by Zoom will surely increase the security of the hosts and will prevent a lot of online trolling. This step taken by Zoom to eliminate Zoombambing is loved by many people especially the hosts. People can now attend Zoom meetings without any disruption. This will soon come to all the platforms such as Zoom as VDI.
