Media Support in Reopening our Zoom Account
South China Morning Post
"The organisers decided to use Zoom to include people who might not otherwise have exposure to information about June 4, which, along with the weeks of pro-democracy protests that led to the military crackdown, is a highly sensitive subject in China."
"The event marked the first time so many high-profile figures with direct ties to the 1989 pro-democracy movement had come together in one space, said Zhou, who kicked off the conference by playing The Wound of History, a Chinese song written to commemorate the June 4 movement."
Owen Churchill, June 11th 2020
BBC World Tonight (Report Begins at 27:47)
Axios
"Chinese pro-democracy activists and dissidents face harassment and surveillance even beyond China's borders. U.S. companies with a presence in China have also faced scrutiny for their handling of content deemed sensitive by Chinese authorities."
Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, June 10th 2020
Voice of America
"人们怀疑Zoom公司的做法是受到了中国方面压力，因为六四虽然过去了30多年，但依然被中共当局视为敏感话题而严加控制。一家美国公司屈服于中国政府压力而关闭美国用户的付费账户，致使他们的纪念活动无法顺利进行，这在海外民运人士中间引起了很大的不安。"
木风， 六月十一2020
The Guardian
"PEN America denounced Zoom for bowing to the Chinese government. The group’s CEO, Suzanne Nossel, said in a statement: “Zoom portends to be the platform of choice for companies, school systems and a wide range of organisations that need a virtual way to communicate, especially amid global lockdown. But it can’t serve that role and act as the long arm of the Chinese government. You don’t get to have it both ways.”
Frances Eve, a deputy director of research at Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said: “Zoom must stop enabling government suppression of free expression rights.” She said the company must “clarify its internal processes that allowed the Chinese government to quickly have it censor activists"
Lily Kuo and Helen Davidson, June 11th 2020
New York Times
"Mr. Zhou said Zoom had not told him why his account was blocked or what steps led to the decision. He said that the deeper problem was China’s censorship and that democracies should take sharp actions against Beijing for its tight control of the internet, potentially by blocking Chinese internet companies or cutting China off entirely from the global internet."
Paul Mozur, June 11th 2020
Washington Post
"The three incidents are reviving concerns about the fast-growing Silicon Valley company’s susceptibility to Chinese government influence weeks after the firm began facing scrutiny over security, including its routing of data through China. Coming in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the episode also highlights the world’s dependency on services such as Zoom and their ability to control speech."
“Zoom is acquiescing to an oppressive and inhumane government,” Chen said by telephone this week upon his release. “I wish they would consider that before their material profits.”
Gary Shih, June 11th 2020
Quartz
"This isn’t the first time Zhou has found his online presence silenced by a tech company whose business interests span from the US to China. Last year, he announced his LinkedIn account was blocked from public view in China, but the company reversed the move after reporters picked up the story. Zhou tweeted at the time that “this is how censorship spread(s) from Communist China to Silicon Valley in the age of globalization and digitalization”—a comment that applies just as much to the new China-linked tech companies that are starting to flourish overseas."
Jane Li, June 11th 2020
Wall Street Journal
"Zoom Video Communications Inc. drew fresh questions over its relationship with the Chinese government when it shut down a U.S. human-rights organization’s account shortly after its videoconference on the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre."
Eva Xiao, June 11th 2020