Zoom security executive accused of surveilling for Chinese government
WASHINGTON — A security executive with the video-tech giant Zoom worked with the Chinese government to terminate Americans’ accounts and disrupt video calls about the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy activists in Tiananmen Square, Justice Department prosecutors said Friday.
The case is a stunning blow for Zoom, one of the most popular new titans of American tech, which during the pandemic has become one of the main ways people work, socialize and share ideas around the world. The Californiabased company is now worth more than $100 billion.
But the executive’s work with the Chinese government, as alleged by FBI agents in an arrest warrant unsealed Friday in a New York City federal court, highlights the often-hidden threats of censorship on a forum promoted as a platform for free speech. It also raises questions about how Zoom is protecting users’ data from governments that seek to surveil and suppress people inside their borders and abroad.
Prosecutors said the China-based executive, Xinjiang Jin, worked as Zoom’s primary liaison with Chinese law enforcement and intelligence services, sharing user information and terminating video calls at the Chinese government’s request.
Mr. Jin monitored
Zoom’s video system for discussions of political and religious topics deemed unacceptable by China’s ruling Communist Party, the complaint says, and he gave government officials the names, email addresses and other sensitive information of users — even those outside China.
Mr. Jin worked also to end at least four video meetings in May and June, including video memorial calls with U.S.-based dissidents who’d survived the 1989 crackdown by Chinese military forces that killed thousands of students and protesters. The Chinese government works to censor any acknowledgment of the massacre, including on social media outside China.
The filing does not specifically name Zoom, but a Chinese human rights activist whose Zoom call was disrupted earlier this year told The Washington Post on Friday that he worked with the FBI on the case.
A Zoom spokesperson said the company is reviewing the filing but offered no further comment.
Mr. Jin, who prosecutors said is not in U.S. custody, could not be reached for comment.
Human-rights activists this summer said their Zoom accounts had been abruptly terminated shortly before or after they’d hosted video calls commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, a bloody crackdown captured in the iconic photo of a man standing in front of a Chinese tank.