Zoom is working on new features that will allow it to block users based on their geographical location after admitting it recently suspended Lee Cheuk-yan, Wang Dan and Zhou Fengsuo who are based in the US and Hong Kong at the request of the Chinese government.
The company was widely criticized for suspending the accounts, which were hosting meetings to commemorate the June 4th Tiananmen Square massacre. In a blog post, Zoom said it had reinstated the accounts and was developing tools to allow targeted blocking.
“Zoom is developing technology over the next several days that will enable us to remove or block at the participant level based on geography,” said the company. “This will enable us to comply with requests from local authorities when they determine activity on our platform is illegal within their borders.”
The announcement will exacerbate concerns that Zoom is happy to block and suspend users in order to comply with the wishes of the Chinese government.
Zoom said it was informed by the Chinese government in May and early June that four meetings commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre would be taking place. After the company established that three of the meetings either contained a number of participants from mainland China or were likely to, it decided to end them and suspend the host accounts. Zoom says that these host accounts have since been reinstated. The company says it took no action against a fourth meeting.
According to Zoom, however, it wouldn’t have terminated the meetings if it had the ability to block meeting participants based on their location. This new feature, it claims, could allow the meeting to take place outside of China without any users attending from the country, meaning Zoom would not be obliged to take down the meetings in their entirety.
As a response to Zoom’s admission, some US lawmakers are now asking the company to clarify its ties with the Chinese government. Zoom has yet to respond, but in its post, it vowed not to let requests from Chinese authorities affect anyone outside mainland China going forward. To make sure it can stay true to its word, it’s now developing technology that will enable it to block users based on their location. It’s also improving its global policy and outlining it as part of its transparency report due out on June 30th.
