The Vermont legislature was shut down mid-zoom yesterday by a group yelling drunken obscenities, and screen-sharing porn and crude racist graffiti, according to VTDigger
The tech people suggested a login was shared inappropriately. But if this was a mere prank, it seems far out of proportion to the seriousness of its impact.
This adds to concerns that Zoom did not take into account, in haste to launch a far-reaching product, that some humans can be expected to misbehave this way. A company experiencing a windfall of pandemic proportions would be hard pressed to address such a problem in normal circumstances. But that windfall is looking like a gaping pitfall now.
Vermont, like many states, has moved primary and secondary education as well as most government functions into that proprietary environment.
The big pandemic mirror is showing us the fragility of critical systems run by four-profit business, that should be run by government committed to the common good.
Federal annexation of an online tech company, even this late in a declared national emergency, seems highly unlikely when Ideology is so clearly the top priority.
We would never allow this to continue with, say, health care, or the military.
Flashback to SNL's "Miss Emily Latella", (Gilda Radner): "What? Oh. That's very different. Nevermind!"