South Africa parliament video call hacked with pornography

JOHANNESBURG — A virtual meeting of South African lawmakers has been disrupted by hackers who flooded the video call with pornographic images.

In the the incident on Thursday, the hackers also hurled racial and sexual insults at the meeting’s chairwoman, Thandi Modise, who is the speaker of the National Assembly.

South Africa’s parliament is closed and all its meetings are currently held by video conference calls as the country remains under strict lockdown restrictions to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

A shocked Modise said that she had earlier warned about using the virtual meetings platform Zoom for the meeting. The parliamentary meeting later continued with a different link.

At least one other South African parliament video call has been similarly hacked.

Zoom has been facing criticism internationally as a result of reports of hackers who who disrupt meetings by posting offensive content.

Zomb-bombing, or the hacking of Zoom calls, has been frequent in recent weeks as new users join the platform amid the battle against the spread of COVID-19 and the cancellations of public meetings and events.

Mogomotsi Magome, The Associated Press