US Church Sues Zoom After Hacker Streams Porn During Bible Study

“The footages were sick and sickening,” the church said in its lawsuit against Zoom.

A church in California is suing video chat company Zoom after a hacker infiltrated an online Bible study class to stream porn. According to CNN, the Saint Paulus Lutheran Church, one of the oldest churches in San Francisco, held a bible study class on May 6 which was ‘zoombombed’ by the hacker. The hacker played “sick and disturbing videos” while disabling control buttons for the class participants, most of whom were senior citizens.

“The footages were sick and sickening — portraying adults engaging in sexual acts with each other and performing sexual acts on infants and children, in addition to physically abusing them,” a lawsuit filed by the church said. The suit added that Zoom admitted the hacker was a “known offender” who had been reported “multiple times to the authorities.”

“The Church filed this lawsuit only after Zoom refused to take its concerns seriously,” Mark Molumphy, one of the church’s lawyers, told CNN.

The lawsuit also added that when students tried ending the session and starting over, the hacker attacked again.

A spokesperson for Zoom termed the incident “horrific”, in a statement shared with BBC.

“Our hearts go out to those impacted,” the company said, and added, “On the same day we learned of this incident, we identified the offender, took action to block their access to the platform and reported them to the relevant authorities.”

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The popularity of Zoom has soared in recent times with the coronavirus lockdown keeping millions indoors and working from home – but this is not the first time that security concerns have been raised about the video conferencing app. In April, the home ministry had warned that Zoom is not a safe platform while issuing guidelines for the safety of private users who “still would like to use Zoom for private purpose”.