Mission to end Zoom streaming after pornography incident
Mission says it will no longer use Zoom for city council meetings after a participant unaffiliated with the city hijacked Tuesday’s publicly accessible meeting livestream and played clips of pornography.
The pornography was only visible on Zoom, though audio from those videos could be heard on the city’s YouTube livestream, which the city restricted public access to late Tuesday because of “minor technical details.”
That video was reuploaded to YouTube Wednesday afternoon with portions of its audio removed.
“At no point was anything other than the ongoing City Council meeting shown on the City Hall screens, cameras, or inside the Council Chamber,” a statement from the city said.
The clips were extremely graphic.
“#smellmybutt Men That Smell Like Men,” read the caption on one video showing two men having intercourse.
A participant — apparently the perpetrator —was logged into the meeting who at one point using a racial slur for a screenname.
In 2020, the FBI issued warnings about individuals hijacking Zoom meetings and playing videos that were pornographic or violent.
The Zoom meeting portion of a panel discussion at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2023 was interrupted after a guest took control of the livestream and played what appeared to be a beheading.
Though the city won’t use Zoom anymore, it will still stream meetings on YouTube, which it says will ensure “transparency and continued public access.”
Tuesday’s livestream hijacking wasn’t the first cybersecurity incident for the city this year.
In February, a debilitating ransomware attack that appeared to be linked to a group of Russian hackers ground many city services to a standstill.
The city spent tens of thousands of dollars on new cybersecurity infrastructure in the wake of that attack.
The city’s statement noted that Zoom is a third-party platform and has no connectivity with its network.
The city didn’t say whether the incident would trigger any sort of investigation.
