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Thanks to Linda Goudsmit for sending us this article.

The CCP is the Zoom fly on the wall – Buy American is the fly swatter. 

When American companies started manufacturing in China they did it for cheap labor/increased profits – their interests were economic. But manufacturing in China means being in business with the CCP.

China’s interests were always political. The CCP is a replacement socio-political system just like Islam is a replacement socio-political system. American greed is being exploited by both. 

It is the same short-term/long-term interests and thinking that distinguishes east from west. Multiculturalism requires mutual respect – replacement systems are singularities. LG 

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Zoom Shared US User Data With Beijing to Ensure Chinese Market Access, Court Documents Show

BY CATHY HE December 21, 2020 Updated: December 21, 2020

Excerpts from the article:

A Zoom executive worked with Chinese authorities to provide data on users located outside of China and ensure the U.S. video-call giant retained market access in the country, according to recently unsealed court documents filed by U.S. federal prosecutors.

The revelations highlight how users outside of China’s shores are increasingly being caught in the crosshairs as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) steps up its demands on companies like Zoom to surveil and censor users both at home and abroad. Zoom is a San Jose-based company, whose software is developed in China.

Jin was responsible for proactively monitoring meetings on Zoom for discussions deemed “illegal” by the regime. For instance, in August 2019, Jin singled out a Christian group hosting meetings on Zoom’s U.S. servers, an FBI agent said in the complaint. Jin told a U.S.-based colleague that the group was a “Chinese cult” and its account should be blocked due to its discussion of Christian content. In response, the colleague directed Jin to put the account on “quarantine” status, an action that limits its features, in the hopes that this would force the user to drop the platform.

In early September 2019, the Chinese regime blocked Zoom from operating in the country. To resume operations, Zoom was required to submit “rectification” plans to Chinese authorities, the complaint said. In the plan, Zoom agreed to proactively monitor communications for discussion of topics, including political views, deemed unacceptable to the CCP, migrate the storage of around 1 million China-based users’ data to China from the United States, and provide Chinese security authorities special access to Zoom’s systems, according to the FBI agent.

After Zoom’s popularity exploded amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese authorities imposed tighter controls on the company, the complaint said. They demanded Zoom develop the capability to shut down “illegal” meetings or accounts within one minute of receiving a direction from authorities—known as the “one minute processing requirement.”

In one discussion in April, the U.S. employee suggested that another U.S.-based worker could provide Jin access to a  “remote” machine in the United States hooked up to the U.S. servers and systems. Jin replied that the matter needed to be handled confidentially outside of usual company procedures, and that he wouldn’t be able to document his actions in a report.

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LFC Comments: We will find an alternative to Zoom for any meetings we may hold, and will not participate in any further Zoom meetings.

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Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: FT