South African lawmakers were left disgusted and shocked after a virtual meeting was hacked with pornographic images. Amid the coronavirus, lawmakers have been holding meetings via video conference calls but things didn’t go as planned last Thursday when a parliamentary committee meeting via Zoom was taken over by hackers.
The lawmakers were about 50 seconds into the meeting when porn images started appearing on the screen with the hacker also racially abusing speaker Thandi Modise who was chairing the virtual meeting, reported SowetanLIVE.
“This is exactly what I said about Zoom!” said a shocked Modise, who had been against using the platform Zoom for the meeting.
MPs, who described the incident as “sick” and “disturbing”, said while they were thinking of what to do next, more porn images and videos appeared on the screen.
The meeting later continued with a different link.
This is the second time South African government officials are reporting their Zoom meeting being hacked. Last month, a public webinar hosted by Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane was also hacked when images of pornography were displayed.
As part of measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, many government officials and private bodies across the world have moved to digital platforms like Zoom for meetings.
Zoom, which has seen its popularity skyrocket during the pandemic, has, however, had to deal with hackers disrupting video conferences with offensive content like porn and racist imagery.
