Zoom says China demanded shutting activists' accounts over Tiananmen event

(Reuters) – Zoom Video Communications Inc (ZM.O) said on Thursday the Chinese government demanded the termination of four public meetings held on its video conferencing platform on June 4 to commemorate the 31st anniversary of China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Zoom said it did not provide any user information or meeting content to the Chinese government and that it would not allow further requests from China to impact users outside the country.

“The Chinese government informed us that this activity is illegal in China and demanded that Zoom terminate the meetings and host accounts,” the company said.

The company’s statement here comes after it temporarily shut three accounts, one based in Hong Kong and two in the United States, after they held the event.

Zoom decided to end three of the meetings and temporarily suspend the host accounts as it is currently unable to remove specific participants from a meeting or block participants from a certain country from joining a meeting, the company said.

Zoom said it left one of the four meetings “undisturbed” as it did not have any participants from mainland China. It has now reinstated the three other accounts which were initially suspended or terminated.