Zoom, an American video-conferencing company, shut down the account of a group of prominent Chinese activists who are based in the United States after they held an event via the service to commemorate the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Zhou Fengsuo, founder of the U.S. nonprofit group Humanitarian China, hosted the event through a paid Zoom account on May 31, according to Axios.
About 250 people attended the event, which featured mothers of students killed during the 1989 protests.
About a week later, his Zoom account displayed a message that it had been shut down. Zhou has been unable to access his account since then, and the company has not responded to his emails, he said.
The account of Lee Cheuk Yan, a pro-democracy activist, was also closed in late May. Zoom has not given an explanation for the account’s closure.
“We are outraged by this act from Zoom, a U.S company,” Zhou and other organizers said in a statement. “As the most commercially popular meeting software worldwide, Zoom is essential as an unbanned outreach to Chinese audiences remembering and commemorating Tiananmen Massacre during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Zoom, which has been heavily used during the coronavirus pandemic, has been under scrutiny over security issues and its links to China.
China has long censured discussion and restricted coverage of the massacre.
Zoom said Wednesday that it had reactivated Zhou’s account.
“Just like any global company, we must comply with applicable laws in the jurisdictions where we operate. When a meeting is held across different countries, the participants within those countries are required to comply with their respective local laws. We aim to limit the actions we take to those necessary to comply with local law and continuously review and improve our process on these matters. We have reactivated the U.S.-based account,” a Zoom spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
