ZoomBombing

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About

ZoomBombing is a form of trolling in which uninvited participants enter publicly posted private Zoom video chat rooms to irritate or harass legitimate meeting members.

Origin

While the practice of "ZoomBombing" may have existed prior to its naming, TechCrunch^[1] editor Josh Constine coined the term on March 17th, 2020 on Twitter. In a series of tweets, he wrote:

Savage. Someone just bombed @CaseyNewton's WFH Happy Hour Zoom call with screen shares of the Internet's most disgusting videos, and the only fix was to kill the call.

I'm calling this ZoomBombing. Beware of people sharing filth to public video calls.

Josh Constine @JoshConstine I'm calling this ZoomBombing. Beware of people sharing filth to public video calls Josh Constine @JoshConstine · Mar 17 Savage. Someone just bombed @CaseyNewton's WFH Happy Hour Zoom call with screenshares of the Internet's most disgusting videos, and the only fix was to kill the call. GIF 5:18 PM · Mar 17, 2020 · Twitter Web App

Precursor

Prior to its use as a term for trolling, some used "ZoomBoming" to describe children and pets appearing in Zoom meetings without invitation. On March 12th, 2020, Twitter^[3] user @LukePerraton tweeted, "Kids and pets doing cameos in zoom meetings – zoom bombing. Everybody pretends it didn’t happen, but secretly hopes they’ll come back" (shown below).

Luke Perraton @LukePerraton Replying to @BecGilroyPod and @CyliePaedspod Kids and pets doing cameos in zoom meetings - zoom bombing. Everybody pretends it didn't happen, but secretly hopes they'll come back 12:21 PM · Mar 12, 2020 · Twitter for iPhone

Spread

That day, TechCrunch^[2] published the article "Beware of ‘ZoomBombing’: screensharing filth to video calls." In the article, Constine writes:

That’s just what happened today on the WFH Happy Hour, a popular daily public Zoom call hosted by The Verge reporter Casey Newton and investor Hunter Walk. Suddenly, dozens of attendees were bombarded with disturbing imagery. A troll entered the call and screenshared Two Girls, One Cup and other horrifying sexual videos. Attempts to block the attack were thwarted as the perpetrator simply re-entered the call under a new name and screenshared more gross-out clips. The hosts ended the call rather than subject viewers to the assault until they could stop it.

The problem stems from Zoom’s policy that “The host does not need to grant screen share access for another participant to share their screen.” However, hosts can disable this option in their settings or the Admin controls of a call. You can either change this in your pre-meeting Settings or in the in-call admin settings for Share Screen → Advanced Sharing Settings.

Following the report, people began sharing examples of ZoomBombing that they had experienced. For example, on March 17th, Twitter^[4] user @exitpost tweeted, "Okay so someone started screensharing extremely graphic porn during the Lauv and Chipotle + Zoom hangout and it abruptly ended lol. Maybe these platforms need to be thoroughly tested first? *blurred for obvious reasons*" (shown below, left).

On March 20th, editor Jessica Lessin tweeted, "Our video call was just attacked by someone who kept sharing pornography + switching between different user accounts so we could not block them. Stay tuned for next steps. And I am sorry to everyone who experienced. We shut down as soon as we could / We will find an audio-only version and schedule for next week. Thank you @karaswisher! So sad that this is happening online already" (shown below, right).