Hallandale Beach coronavirus video conference briefly hijacked by porn, officials say
A Hallandale Beach video conference was briefly hijacked when a person showed pornographic images for everyone to see on Friday.
Hallandale Beach spokeswoman Cathie Schanz said every Friday since April the city hosts “Hallandale Cares: Chat with the Mayor and Commissioners” at 12:30 p.m. to give updates regarding coronavirus questions and changes.
It was 6 minutes and 50 seconds into the event when someone Zoom bombed the discussion just as Commissioner Mike Butler finished his remarks and was about to hand it over to the mayor.
Schanz confirmed they were able to get past the city’s privacy settings and share pornographic images to everyone on the call or watching it on Facebook Live. But Schanz said it was visible for two seconds before they were able to put a slide image to block the pornography.
“This is the first time we have been Zoom bombed since we started this. Unfortunately there are people out there who know how to get around these [privacy] settings. We are committed to continuing to keep open dialogue with our residents.”
City officials are looking into how the Zoom bombing happened and how to prevent it from happening again.
Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper said she will not allow anything that prevents the city from having an open dialogue with its citizens and that the streamed meetings will continue.
