JUNEAU (AP) - Officials in Alaska’s capital city are working on measures to prevent disruptions of online public meetings that have included verbal abuse of at least one assembly member.
The use of videoconferences allows the public to continue observing and participating city government meetings during the Coronavirus pandemic, but there have been problems, Juneau public radio station KTOO reported Jan. 26.
City officials estimated there have been about a dozen instances of what has become known as “Zoom bombing,” or planned disruptions of meetings using the popular Zoom videoconference software. The method has been used to disrupt public meetings throughout Alaska and elsewhere on Zoom and other conferencing platforms, often with lewd, racist or pornographic material.
The Juneau Assembly has updated its planned responses, though officials would not reveal details that could enable the methods to be circumvented. Officials shared only that someone’s hand is now always near the mute button.
“We’ve had a few at the assembly level, we’ve had a few at the school board level, we’ve had a few in some committee board” meetings, Juneau City Attorney Rob Palmer said. The city does not have a local law identifying Zoom bombing as a crime, although Palmer said he is working to make that change.
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