Raiders, crashers, marauders. These people are all participating in something called Zoom bombing. You may have seen one of them in your math class disguised as a fellow student. However, when they unmute their microphone, reality dooms on you as you hear the nonsense being spouted by the internet troll simultaneously disturbing your education and the teacher’s attempt to give a proper education online. This is Zoom bombing, and it is a serious issue, especially when everything is online.

So how are these people getting into these important Zoom calls? Most of the time, a meeting is raided when a participant of the meeting decides to share the code with people outside of the class. The code is then spread on social media sites such as Reddit and Twitter until the call is forced to close due to the massive number of people coming in to ruin the meeting environment. This is unideal for learning conditions because students are unable to gather information from the teacher when nobody is able to hear anything due to the influx of Zoom bombers. 

You may be wondering, if these pranks have been such a big deal, why haven’t the two companies done something about it? Well, the two companies know that their important meeting system is being exploited and have taken measure to avoid this. Both Zoom and Google allow users to not only require the meeting ID, but also another password in order for a user to join the call. This simple step can deter many raiders as most participants are not provided a password to a meeting, but rather a meeting link or ID instead.

Imagine getting access into a random person’s meeting where you can say whatever you want and perform any act you want without the risk of getting punished by the school system. This may seem like the case, but in reality, there are serious consequences for these marauders. Zoom bombing is actually a federal offense, and the FBI has been cracking down on these Zoom hijackers. Twitch streamer turned YouTube sensation Twomad has even been featured on BBC News for his antics regarding Zoom raids. Crashing these virtual meetings should not be encouraged as it costs somebody’s education which is important for the rest of their life at the cost of a short period of entertainment.

These acts are not only things we hear about online, an anonymous student has also reported that his class has been Zoom bombed by a prankster. 

“I was very surprised because it has never happened to me, but it wasn’t as bad as what other people have seen in their online classes. He made a few inappropriate jokes towards the students and towards the teacher, and was kicked after a few minutes,” said senior Nathan Wang. 

“I have not personally seen one of these raids, but know that they can be destructive based off of many youtube videos,” said senior Ryan Lu. Although these raids can be very disruptive, action can be taken before things get out of hand.

The act of Zoom bombing may be a source of entertainment for some, but really hinders the education of many others. This harmless prank can actually net you many fines and can even land you in jail depending on the severity of your actions. If you have invaded a meeting before, you might not want to do it again as you could have law enforcement show up on your front door.

Graphic courtesy of THEBURNIN.COM