As city officials were discussing a budget amendment at Tuesday night’s regular council meeting, hate symbols and racial slurs began appearing on the shared screen over Zoom.
An outside participant hijacked the city’s public Zoom connection, drawing various offensive images and words on the screen for all participants to see. According to the city, none of the attacks targeted any specific person or organization. The hijacker displayed a laughing emoji face as they exited the virtual meeting.
Unalaska City Manager Bil Homka said the city condemns this behavior, which he described as “deeply disturbing, harmful to our community, and a direct attack on the respectful process of public participation that Unalaska values.”
With most public organizations now offering virtual participation, hijacking public meetings isn’t uncommon — to the point that it’s now coined “Zoom-bombing.”
These types of disruptive and malicious interruptions can be very serious and have resulted in lawsuits against Zoom Communications, Inc., the company behind the popular videoconferencing application.
Homka said the city is reviewing the security measures for online meetings to improve protections.
He said the city will provide the digital records and all available information to the authorities.
