SF Church Leads Class Action Suit Against Zoom, Inc. After Bible Study Class Gets Zoombombed With Porn
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - One of San Francisco's oldest churches has filed a class-action lawsuit against the popular videoconferencing app Zoom, after a pornographic zoombombing incident during a Bible Study class.
Saint Paulus Lutheran Church is a lead co-plaintiff along with a bible study teacher in the case against Zoom Video Communications, Inc, filed in a U.S. District Court in San Jose on Wednesday.
Zoom's videoconferencing app has become increasingly popular since the coronavirus pandemic, when millions of Americans were ordered to stay at home.
The lawsuit charges the San Jose-based video conferencing tech giant with violating the "sanctity of the church" after a bible study class was zoombombed twice with explicit photos of people engaged in sexual acts with men, women and children.
The alleged incident happened on May 6.
According to the complaint, Cundle and other attendees, "most of whom were senior citizens — had their computer screens hijacked and their control buttons disabled while being forced to watch pornographic video footages...portraying adults engaging in sexual acts with each other and performing sexual acts on infants and children, in addition to physically abusing them."
The church reported the incident to Zoom and says the company told them told the culprit was a "known offender" and had been blocked but "refused to take any further action to remedy the situation or to improve the security of its videoconferences."
The plaintiffs accuse Zoom of negligence, breach of implied contract and invasion of privacy along with several other violations, and is seeking "actual, compensatory,consequential, punitive, and treble damages to the extent permitted by law."
The plaintiffs are also demanding a jury trial.
Zoom's videoconferencing app has become increasingly popular since the coronavirus pandemic, when millions of Americans were ordered to stay at home.
A Zoom spokesperson issued a statement about the lawsuit, saying:
"We were deeply upset to hear about this incident, and our hearts go out to those impacted by this horrific event. Words cannot express how strongly we condemn such behavior. 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 relevant authorities. We encourage users to report any incidents of this kind either to Zoom so we can take appropriate action or directly to law enforcement authorities. We also encourage all meeting hosts to take advantage of Zoom's recently updated security features and follow other best practices, including making sure not to broadly share meeting IDs and passwords online, as appeared to be the case here."
