Google Duo is a video chat mobile app developed by Google, available on the Android and iOS operating systems. It was announced at Google's developer conference on May 18, 2016, and began its worldwide release on August 16, 2016. It is also available to use via Google's Chrome web browser on desktop and laptop computers.
As of December 1, 2016, Google Duo replaced Hangouts within the suite of Google apps device manufacturers must install in order to gain access to the Google Play Store, with Hangouts instead becoming optional.
In August 2020, it was reported that Google was planning to eventually replace Google Duo with Google Meet, but would continue to support Duo and "invest in building new features" in the long term.
Google Duo video calls are in 720p HD video. It is optimized for low-bandwidth mobile networks through WebRTC and uses QUIC over UDP. Optimization is further achieved through the degradation of video quality through monitoring network quality. "Knock Knock" shows a live preview of the caller before the recipient picks up, which Google says is to "make calls feel more like an invitation rather than an interruption". End-to-end encryption is enabled by default. Duo is based on phone numbers, allowing users to call people from their contact list. The app automatically switches between Wi-Fi and cellular networks. For packet loss concealment Duo uses WaveNetEQ, a generative model based on DeepMind/Google AI’s WaveRNN.
In March 2017, it was announced that Google Duo would let users make audio-only calls. The feature was first launched in Brazil, with a global rollout in April.
A year later in March 2018, video and voice messages were added to Duo. Users can leave messages up to 30 seconds long for contacts who are unavailable. These messages can then be viewed by the other party, with the option of calling afterwards.
Support for eight-person video calls in both the iOS and Android versions of the app was added in May 2019. In line with similar group calling offerings from FaceTime, WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger, participants can join or leave the conversation at any time.
Google Duo expanded group sizes from 8 to 12 at the end of March 2020 and has announced plans to increase the limit to 32 callers.
FaceTime
FaceTime is a proprietary videotelephony product developed by Apple Inc. FaceTime is available on supported iOS mobile devices running iOS 4 and later and Mac computers that run Mac OS X 10.6.6 and later. FaceTime supports any iOS device with a forward-facing camera and any Mac computer equipped with a FaceTime Camera. FaceTime Audio, an audio-only version, is available on any iOS device that supports iOS 7 or newer, and any Mac with a forward-facing camera running Mac OS X 10.9.2 and later. FaceTime is included for free in iOS and in macOS from Mac OS X Lion (10.7) onwards.
On February 24, 2011, FaceTime left beta and was listed in the Mac App Store for US$0.99. Apple claims that it intended to provide the application free of charge, however, a provision of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (2002) bars companies from providing an unadvertised new feature of an already-sold product without enduring "onerous accounting measures". As of December 2017, the US$0.99 beta is still available for download from Apple. FaceTime is included for free in macOS from Mac OS X Lion (10.7) onwards and iOS.
AT&T allowed customers to use FaceTime as long as they were tiered, but blocked the application from working for customers with unlimited data plans. They were brought before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for net neutrality violations.
In May 2011, it was found that FaceTime would work seamlessly over 3G on all iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch models that supported it. Even though FaceTime worked only over 3G at that time, it now supports 4G LTE calls on networks all over the world, availability being limited to operators' GSM plans.
In 2018, Apple added group video and audio support to FaceTime which can support up to 32 people in iOS 12 and macOS Mojave.
FaceTime works by establishing a connection between two supported devices. Most Apple devices (such as iPhones, iPads and Macs) introduced after 2011 support FaceTime. FaceTime is currently incompatible with non-Apple devices or any other video calling services. Mac models introduced in 2011 have high-definition video FaceTime, which devices use automatically when both ends have a FaceTime HD camera.
At launch, unlike Mac OS X's iChat, FaceTime did not support group conferencing. The application allowed a one-on-one video chat — only two people could talk at once. If a second user called and the user answered, the video chat with the previous user would end and a new video session began with the second caller. In iPhone, if a phone call was pending and the user attempts to answer, the video call ends and the phone call began with the next user. Support for group video conferencing was added with the release of iOS 12, allowing up to 32 people to participate in a video call simultaneously.
Incoming notifications on iOS devices are shown during a FaceTime call, but if they are opened, the video will be temporarily paused until the user is back in the FaceTime app.
On the iPhone, a user can activate FaceTime during a phone call by pressing the FaceTime button or initiated FaceTime from their call history or the Contacts application. iOS 7 and newer also provide a separate FaceTime app, as there always has been on Apple's non-telephony devices: iPad, iPod Touch, and Mac.
Until the release of iOS 6, FaceTime required a WiFi connection to work. From iOS 6 onwards, FaceTime for the iPhone and iPad has supported FaceTime calls over cellular networks (3G or LTE) provided the carrier enabled it, which by mid-2013 virtually all carriers worldwide have allowed. FaceTime Audio uses about three megabytes of data for every five minutes of conversation, with FaceTime Video using significantly more. Cellular talk time/minutes are not used after switching from a voice call to a FaceTime call.
FaceTime calls can be placed from supported devices to any phone number or email address that is registered to the FaceTime service. A single email address can be registered to multiple devices and a call placed to that address rings all devices simultaneously.
The FaceTime protocol is based on numerous open industry standards although it is not interoperable with other videotelephony systems:
- H.264 and AAC-ELD – video and audio codecs respectively.
- SIP – IETF signaling protocol for VoIP.
- STUN, TURN and ICE – IETF technologies for traversing firewalls and NAT.
- RTP and SRTP – IETF standards for delivering real-time and encrypted media streams for VoIP.
Upon the launch of the iPhone 4, Jobs stated that Apple would immediately start working with standards bodies to make the FaceTime protocol an "open industry standard". While the protocols are open standards, Apple's FaceTime service requires a client-side certificate.
FaceTime calls are protected by end-to-end encryption so that only the sender and receiver can access them. Apple cannot decrypt this data.
Compared to most SIP implementations, Facetime adds techniques that enhance performance at the cost of breaking interoperability: port multiplexing, SDP minimization and SDP compression.
A new audio-only version of FaceTime, named FaceTime Audio, was announced during the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote speech on June 10, 2013, and released with iOS 7 on September 18, 2013. As an audio-only version of FaceTime, it effectively makes the protocol into a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), that competes with other mainstream providers in the field, including Skype (Microsoft).
Based on the same AAC-LD audio protocol, the service provides high-quality audio. The iOS 7 betas limited FaceTime Audio to calls placed on a Wi-Fi network (the same original limitation of the video version of FaceTime), but the final release has removed that restriction to allow it to work over 3G and LTE data connections, as is the case with most carriers and plans with regard to FaceTime with video. Like the video version, FaceTime Audio is currently only available between Apple devices on iOS 7 and later. FaceTime streaming over cellular data is unavailable for the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2.
Due to the proprietary nature of FaceTime, it is currently unavailable on other platforms including Android and Windows. Unscrupulous third-party developers have capitalized on this to create fraudulent imitation FaceTimes in Chrome extensions, with thousands of downloads.
As of June 2010, FaceTime is not enabled on devices bought in the United Arab Emirates possibly due to regulations in this country that restrict IP-based communications. In addition, on devices bought in China only FaceTime Audio is disabled, while FaceTime Video is available. Devices bought outside these countries support both video and audio versions of FaceTime. Although Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait originally disabled FaceTime on the iPhone 4, they later re-enabled the feature through a carrier update for existing phone owners, and made it pre-enabled on any newly purchased iPhone. In March 2018, FaceTime was made available for iPhones in Saudi Arabia upon updating to iOS 11.3, and in August 2019, FaceTime was made available for iPhones in Pakistan upon updating to iOS 12.4.
As of April 16, 2014, FaceTime ceased working on earlier versions of iOS which had previously supported it (iOS 4 and later), due to the client-side certificate used to authenticate a genuine Apple device with FaceTime servers (amongst other uses) expiring on that date. Apple chose not to release an update to this certificate for all devices for which a newer major iOS version (with a new, valid certificate) was available. Apple did release a minor update, to the certificate only, for all OS X versions which could run FaceTime, and also for the 4th generation iPod Touch, the only iOS device which could run FaceTime but could not run the then-latest iOS 7. The result of this policy was that almost all iOS users had to update the iOS version on their devices if they wished to continue using FaceTime.
On January 28, 2019, a bug was discovered in the FaceTime app that allowed users to eavesdrop on other users without their knowledge through an exploit. It was later discovered the video feed could be enabled without the other users' acceptance. Apple said in a statement that it would release a fix for the exploit shortly, disabling Group FaceTime for the time being. The bug was named "FacePalm" by security researchers, and affects iOS devices running Facetime on iOS 12.1 or Mac computers running MacOS 10.14.1 Mojave. On February 7, Apple fixed the FaceTime vulnerabilities in iOS 12.1.4 and a Supplemental Update for macOS Mojave 10.14.3.
Although the bug gained international attention on January 28, 2019, the bug was found by a high school student in Arizona. He and his mother tried for more than a week to warn Apple about the problem through Facebook and Twitter after discovering the bug on January 20, without receiving answers. On January 25, 2019, they posted a video to YouTube demonstrating the bug.
Zoom
Zoom is a videotelephony proprietary software program developed by Zoom Video Communications. The free plan provides a video chatting service that allows up to 100 concurrent participants, with a 40-minute time restriction. Users have the option to upgrade by subscribing to a paid plan. The highest plan supports up to 1,000 concurrent participants for meetings lasting up to 30 hours.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a major increase in the use of Zoom for remote work, distance education, and online social relations. The increase led to Zoom being the 5th most downloaded mobile app worldwide in 2020 at 477 million downloads.
Zoom is compatible with Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, and Linux. It is noted for its simple interface and usability, regardless of technological expertise. Features include one-on-one meetings, group video conferences, screen sharing, plugins, browser extensions, and the ability to record meetings and have them automatically transcribed. On some computers and operating systems, users are able to select a virtual background, which can be downloaded from different sites, to use as a backdrop behind themselves.
Use of the platform is free for video conferences of up to 100 participants at once, with a 40-minute time limit if there are more than two participants. For longer or larger conferences with more features, paid subscriptions are available, costing $15–20 per month. Features geared towards business conferences, such as Zoom Rooms, are available for $50–100 per month. Up to 49 people can be seen on a desktop or laptop screen at once, up to 4 people per screen in iPhone and Android mobile phones and tablet computers, and up to 16 people per screen on iPad. Zoom has several tiers: Basic, Pro, Business, and Enterprise. Participants do not have to download the app if they are using Google Chrome or Firefox; they can click on a link and join from the browser. Zoom is not compatible with Safari for Macs. Users have to download the software in tablet computers and mobile phones with Android and iOS.
Zoom security features include password-protected meetings, user authentication, waiting rooms, locked meetings, disabling participant screen sharing, randomly generated IDs, and the ability for the host to remove disruptive attendees. As of June 2020, Zoom began offering end-to-end encryption to business and enterprise users, with AES 256 GCM encryption enabled for all users. In October 2020, Zoom added end-to-end encryption for free and paid users. It's available on all platforms, except for the official Zoom web client.
Zoom also offers a transcription service using Otter.ai software that allows businesses to store transcriptions of the Zoom meetings online and search them, including separating and labeling different speakers.
As of July 2020, Zoom Rooms and Zoom Phone also became available as hardware as a service products. Zoom Phone is available for domestic telephone service in 40 countries as of August 2020. In January 2021, the company disclosed that it had sold 1 million seats for the Zoom Phone service. Zoom for Home, a category of products designed for home use, became available in August 2020.
In September 2020, Zoom added new accessibility features to make the app easier to use for those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or visually impaired. New features include the ability to move around video windows in gallery view, pin video windows to be spotlighted; improved keyboard shortcuts; new tools to adjust the size of closed captioning text; and sign language interpreters' windows can now sit directly next to the speaker.
In October 2020 at Zoomtopia, Zoom's annual user conference, the company unveiled OnZoom, a virtual event marketplace with an integrated payment system where users can host and promote free or paid live events. With OnZoom, users will be able to schedule and host one-time events or event series for up to 1,000 attendees, and sell tickets online. The company also announced Zoom Apps, a feature integrating third-party apps so they can be used within the Zoom interface during meetings. The first such apps were expected to be available around the end of 2020, from companies including Slack, Salesforce, and Dropbox. In October 2020, Zoom gave its users better security with an upgrade to end-to-end encryption for its online meetings network.
On March 22, 2021, Zoom announced that it would start selling its videoconferencing technology as a white-label product, so other companies can embed it in their own products, with the calls running over Zoom but not carrying the company's brand name.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom has been used by banks, schools, universities, and government agencies around the world, by the UK Parliament, by healthcare professionals for telemedicine, barbershops, and ceremonies such as birthday parties, funeral services, and Bar and Bat Mitzvah services. Zoom formed a partnership with Formula One to create a virtual club where fans can go behind the scenes and take part in virtual activities through Zoom, beginning with the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 19, 2020. An article published in July 2020 in the San Francisco Chronicle noted a new real estate trend in San Francisco and Oakland where some listings include "Zoom rooms" with backdrops for Zoom calls. People were complaining about "zoom fatigue" (too much video calls) before they had their "zoom happy hour" (online social meeting with friends or colleagues).
Richard Nelson's play What Do We Need to Talk About? takes place on Zoom, with its main characters congregating online during the COVID-19 pandemic using Zoom. Written and directed by Nelson, it was commissioned by The Public Theater and premiered on YouTube on April 29, 2020, as a benefit performance. The New Yorker called it "the first great original play of quarantine". Oprah's Your Life in Focus: A Vision Forward was a live virtual experience hosted by Oprah Winfrey on Zoom from May 16 through June 6, 2020. In Source Material's play In These Uncertain Times, directed by Samantha Shay, characters communicate on Zoom. The play premiered on Zoom on July 25, 2020. In the 2020 British found-footage Zoom-based horror film Host, directed by Rob Savage, a group of young people have a remote séance in which they try contacting spirits over Zoom. It premiered on Shudder in July 2020. A live reading of Kristoffer Diaz's 2009 play The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity over Zoom streamed on Play-PerView from August 15–20, 2020. In the 2021 film Locked Down, directed by Doug Liman and starring Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor, characters communicate through Zoom conferences.
On July 3–4, using Zoom Webinar, the International Association of Constitutional Law and Alma Mater Europaea organized the first "round-the-clock and round-the-globe" event that traveled through time zones, featuring 52 speakers from 28 countries. Soon after, a format of conferences that "virtually travel the globe with the sun from East to West", became common, some of them running for several days.
On September 17, 2020, a live table read of the script for the 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High was hosted by Dane Cook, with performers including Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, original cast member Sean Penn, Matthew McConaughey, Shia LaBeouf, Morgan Freeman (who served as the narrator), Jimmy Kimmel, Ray Liotta, and John Legend, to raise money for the charity CORE. The broadcast of the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards on September 20, 2020, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, featured nominees participating through Zoom. On an alternate music video for the 2020 single "Ice Cream" by Blackpink featuring Selena Gomez, the artists appeared via Zoom from their homes. The series Zoom Where It Happens, airing on Zoom as a partnership between Zoom and Black female artists, launched in September 2020 with a virtual table read of an episode of The Golden Girls, reimagined with an all-Black cast. The second episode featured an all-Black cast in a table read of an episode of Friends, hosted by Gabrielle Union and featuring Sterling K. Brown and Uzo Aduba.
Zoom has been criticized for "security lapses and poor design choices" that have resulted in heightened scrutiny of its software. Many of Zoom's issues "surround deliberate features designed to reduce friction in meetings," which Citizen Lab found to "also, by design, reduce privacy or security." In March 2020, New York State Attorney General Letitia James launched an inquiry into Zoom's privacy and security practices, the inquiry was closed on May 7, 2020, with Zoom not admitting wrongdoing, but agreeing to take added security measures. In April 2020, CEO Yuan apologized for the security issues, stating that some of the issues were a result of Zoom's having been designed for "large institutions with full IT support," he noted that in December 2019, Zoom had a maximum of 10 million daily users, and in March 2020 the software had more than 200 million daily users, bringing the company increased challenges. Zoom agreed to focus on data privacy and issue a transparency report. In April 2020, the company released Zoom version 5.0, which addressed a number of the security and privacy concerns. It includes passwords by default, improved encryption, and a new security icon for meetings. In September 2020, Zoom added support for two-factor authentication to its desktop and mobile apps; the security feature was previously Web-only.
As of April 2020, businesses, schools, and government entities who have restricted or prohibited the use of Zoom on their networks include Google, Siemens, the Australian Defence Force, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, SpaceX, and the New York City Department of Education. In May 2020, the New York City Department of Education lifted their ban on Zoom after the company addressed security and privacy concerns.
By September 2020, Zoom had 370,200 institutional customers with more than 10 employees, up about 458 percent from the same quarter to the year before. The company's revenue rose 355 percent to $663.5 million, topping analysts' average estimate of $500.5 million. They were able to raise their annual revenue forecast by more than 30 percent after many of their free users converted to paid subscriptions.
In Pandemic Zoom profit increased by 4000% but they paid zero tax, leading to controversies.
Zoom has been criticized for its privacy and corporate data sharing policies, as well as enabling video hosts to potentially violate the privacy of those participating in their calls. There may also be issues with unauthorized surveillance of students and possible violations of students’ rights under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). According to the company, the video services are FERPA-compliant, and it collects and stores user data only for tech support.
In March 2020, a Motherboard article found that the company's iOS app was sending device analytics data to Facebook on startup, regardless of whether a Facebook account was being used with the service, and without disclosing it to the user. Zoom responded that it had recently been made aware of the issue, and had patched the app to remove the SDK after learning that it was collecting unnecessary device data. The company stated that the SDK was collecting information on the user's device specifications (such as model names and operating system versions) only in order to optimize its service and that it was not collecting personal information. In the same month, Zoom was sued by a user in U.S. Federal Court for illegally and secretly disclosing personal data to third parties including Facebook. Zoom responded that it "has never sold user data in the past and has no intention of selling users' data going forward."
In April 2020, a Zoom data-mining feature was found that automatically sent user names and email addresses to LinkedIn, allowing some participants to surreptitiously access LinkedIn profile data about other users. The companies disabled their integration. In May 2020, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it was looking into Zoom's privacy practices. The FTC alleged in a complaint that since at least 2016, "Zoom maintained the cryptographic keys that could allow Zoom to access the content of its customers’ meetings, did not provide advertised end-to-end encryption, falsely claimed HIPAA compliance, installed the ZoomOpener webserver without adequate consent, did not uninstall the web server after uninstalling the Zoom App, and secured its Zoom Meetings with a lower level of encryption than promised." On November 9, 2020, a settlement was reached, requiring the company to stop misrepresenting security features, create an information security program, obtain biannual assessments by a third party, and implement additional security measures.
In November 2018, a security vulnerability was discovered that allowed a remote unauthenticated attacker to spoof UDP messages that allowed the attacker to remove attendees from meetings, spoof messages from users, or hijack shared screens. The company released fixes shortly after the vulnerability was discovered.
In July 2019, security researcher Jonathan Leitschuh disclosed a zero-day vulnerability allowing any website to force a macOS user to join a Zoom call, with their video camera activated, without the user's permission. Attempts to uninstall the Zoom client on macOS would prompt the software to re-install automatically in the background, using a hidden web server that was set up on the machine during the first installation and remained active even after attempting to remove the client. After receiving public criticism, Zoom removed the vulnerability and the hidden webserver, allowing complete uninstallation.
In April 2020, security researchers found vulnerabilities where Windows users' credentials could be exposed. Another vulnerability allowing unprompted access to cameras and microphones was made public. Zoom issued a fix in April 2020. In the same month, "Zoombombing," when an unwanted participant joins a meeting to cause disruption, prompted a warning from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Motherboard reported that there were two Zoom zero-days for macOS and Windows respectively, selling for $500,000, on April 15, 2020. Security bug brokers were selling access to Zoom security flaws that could allow remote access into users' computers. Hackers also put up over 500,000 Zoom user names and passwords for sale on the dark web. In response to the multitude of security and privacy issues found, Zoom began a comprehensive security plan, which included consulting with Luta Security, Trail of Bits, former Facebook CSO Alex Stamos, former Google global lead of privacy technology Lea Kissner, BishopFox, the NCC Group, and Johns Hopkins University cryptographer Matthew D. Green. On April 20, 2020, the New York Times reported that Dropbox engineers had traced Zoom's security vulnerabilities back over two years, pushing Zoom to address such issues more quickly, and paying top hackers to find problems with Zoom's software. In the same article, the New York Times noted that security researchers have praised Zoom for improving its response times, and for quickly patching recent bugs and removing features that could have privacy risks. In April 2020, Zoom made many of its security settings default settings, and advised users on ways to mitigate Zoombombing. In a blog post on April 1, 2020, Yuan announced a 90-day freeze on releasing new features, to focus on fixing privacy and security issues within the platform. The company created a new "report a user to Zoom" button, intended to catch those behind Zoombombing attacks. On July 1, 2020, at the end of the freeze, the company stated it had released 100 new safety features over the 90-day period. Those efforts include end-to-end encryption for all users, turning on meeting passwords by default, giving users the ability to choose which data centers calls are routed from, consulting with security experts, forming a CISO council, an improved bug bounty program, and working with third parties to help test security. Yuan also stated that Zoom would be sharing a transparency report later in 2020.
On 16 November 2020, Zoom announced a new security feature to combat disruptions during a session. The new feature was said to be a default for all free and paid users and made available on the Zoom clients for Mac, PC, and Linux, as well as Zoom mobile apps.
Zoom encrypts its public data streams, using TLS 1.2 with AES-256 (Advanced Encryption Standard) to protect signaling, and AES-128 to protect streaming media.
Security researchers and reporters have criticized the company for its lack of transparency and poor encryption practices. Zoom initially claimed to use "end-to-end encryption" in its marketing materials, but later clarified it meant "from Zoom end point to Zoom end point" (meaning effectively between Zoom servers and Zoom clients), which The Intercept described as misleading and "dishonest." Alex Stamos, a Zoom advisor who was formerly security chief at Facebook, noted that a lack of end-to-end encryption is common in such products, as it is also true of Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Webex. On May 7, 2020, Zoom announced that it had acquired Keybase, a company specializing in end-to-end encryption, as part of an effort to strengthen its security practices moving forward. Later that month, Zoom published a document for peer review, detailing its plans to ultimately bring end-to-end encryption to the software.
In April 2020, Citizen Lab researchers discovered that a single, server-generated AES-128 key is being shared between all participants in ECB mode, which is deprecated due to its pattern-preserving characteristics of the ciphertext. During test calls between participants in Canada and United States, the key was provisioned from servers located in mainland China where they are subject to the China Internet Security Law.
On June 3, 2020, Zoom announced that users on their free tier will not have access to end-to-end encryption so that they could cooperate with the FBI and law enforcement. Later, they said that they do not "proactively monitor meeting content". On June 17, 2020, the company reversed course and announced that free users would have access to end-to-end encryption after all.
On September 7, 2020, cryptography researcher Nadim Kobeissi accused Zoom's security team of failing to credit his open-source protocol analysis research software, Verifpal, with being instrumental during the design phase of Zoom's new encryption protocol, as described in their whitepaper published in June 2020. Kobeissi published a week's worth of conversations with Zoom's security leadership in support of his claim, including Max Krohn, which included eight Verifpal models that Zoom's team asked for feedback on, promises of a citation to credit Kobeissi for his contributions and an admission that the Verifpal citation was pulled from the whitepaper at the last moment for unspecified reasons. Kobeissi also linked to a tweet by Zoom security consultant Lea Kissner which he described as a public character assassination attempt issued in response to his repeated requests to have his work cited in the research paper published by Zoom.
Zoom admitted that some calls in early April 2020 and prior were mistakenly routed through servers in mainland China, prompting some governments and businesses to cease their usage of Zoom. The company later announced that data of free users outside of China would "never be routed through China" and that paid subscribers will be able to customize which data center regions they want to use. The company has data centers in Europe, Asia, North America, and Latin America.
An April 2020 Citizen Lab report warned that having much of Zoom's research and development in China could "open up Zoom to pressure from Chinese authorities." Lee Cheuk Yan's (Chairman of Hong Kong Labour Party) account was also closed in early May 2020, and human rights activist Zhou Fengsuo's was closed in June after he held an event discussing the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. In June 2020, Zoom acknowledged that it had terminated two accounts belonging to U.S. users and one of a user from Hong Kong connected to meetings discussing 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the accounts were later re-opened, with the company stating that in the future it "will have a new process for handling similar situations." Zoom also announced upcoming technology that could prevent participants from specific countries from joining calls that were deemed illegal in those areas.
