Zoom meeting hijacked by a group of bigots spewing racist slurs

By Peter Lane

An anti-racism political party’s zoom meeting was hijacked by a group of bigots spewing racist slurs.

A group of racists infiltrated a zoom call on February 8 shortly after 8pm and triggered their verbal onslaught against Take the Initiative (TTIP) – a political party which aims to promote racial equality.

For a quarter of an hour the group of racist infiltrators subjected the audience to a stream of profanities; using the N word, displaying explicit videos while playing a cacophony of distorted sexual sound effects.

Virtual audience member, Michelle said: “It was five minutes from hell. I was genuinely disturbed; I thought that I was on the wrong platform…maybe I clicked the wrong link. I wasn’t sure and then I heard the word n**ga and felt even more disturbed and angry.

“As I was about to log off, I saw a message in the chat by a member of the party, explaining that the session was being hacked.”

The organisers ejected the audience and then vetted them, scanning for infiltrators using Zooms virtual waiting room.

But the racist attackers, having concealed their identities by switching names with genuine participants continued to harass the meeting through the chat function.

Sasha Johnson, a Take the Initiative executive, and campaigner for a national race offenders register, said: “Moments like this are an example of the racial hate that is embedded in the society that we live in.”

By the time all the attacker had been removed, half of the 80 strong audience had abandoned the call. That evening Take the Initiative started to receive requests to be removed from their mailing list.

TTIP party members are concerned about the effect the racist attacks will have on the meetings that are run on a weekly basis, for free.

Amina, one of the call’s organisers, said: “We do these zooms for the community, we do them because that is something that the party believes; in extending the opportunity for people to voice their views, and to receive any information or help.

“So I was concerned for the viewers. Thinking ok, this is going to offend people this is going to upset people, because this isn’t what we’re about.”

Take the Initiative has since put out a statement apologising for offense caused and pledging to reinforce security, though some are concerned that additional security will inhibit people from joining.

Session host, Darren Bryan said: “We wanted to have a platform that represents community care; meaning that we want to let people into our sessions with open arms, with the freedom to join as and when they please.

“Extra security measures could act as a deterrent to those who lead busy lifestyles, to those who don’t have the confidence to join and/or to those who don’t have the technical knowledge to pass through the added security.”