Purpose

The aims of this paper are to explore the rise of cyberhate on the Zoom video conferencing platform at the outset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to examine victimized cases of Zoombombing where it was used as a cyberhate tool. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only impacted our lives and modes of working and studying, but also created new environments for cybercriminals to engage in cybercrime, cyberhate and hacking by exploiting tools such as Zoom. This new phenomenon called “Zoombombing” was first reported in mid-March 2020, when the social distancing and stay-at-home policies in the United States were nationally introduced.

Design/methodology/approach

This research conducted a news media content analysis on cases of Zoombombing. To conduct this analysis empirically, a dataset with all of the reported Zoombombing cases from March to April 2020 was created. Google Trends, news media and tweets were used to analyze Zoombombing as a form of cyberhate, particularly digital racism.

Findings

The results reveal prevalent Zoom-mediated racism toward Asian Americans, African Americans and Jewish Americans. This study understands Zoombombing from a sociopolitical/cultural perspective through news reporting of victimized cases and explores various ways that Zoombombing shapes, mediates, transforms and escalates racism.

Originality/value

This study is one of the very first studies to analyze Zoombombing in a way that builds upon an emerging body of literature on cyberhate. This paper considers Zoom as a space where curious young people, cybercriminals, extremists and hackers impose their ideologies and beliefs upon newly established online learning and working environments and engage in a struggle for identity recognition in the midst of increasingly accessible vulnerable software and cyberspace.

中文翻译：

---

分析 Zoombombing 作为 COVID-19 时代网络仇恨的新通信工具

目的

本文的目的是探索在 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 大流行开始时 Zoom 视频会议平台上网络仇恨的兴起，并检查 Zoombombing 被用作网络仇恨工具的受害案例。COVID-19 大流行不仅影响了我们的生活和工作和学习方式，还为网络犯罪分子利用 Zoom 等工具进行网络犯罪、网络仇恨和黑客攻击创造了新环境。这种被称为“Zoomombing”的新现象于 2020 年 3 月中旬首次报道，当时美国在全国范围内引入了社会疏离和居家政策。

设计/方法/方法

本研究对 Zoombombing 案件进行了新闻媒体内容分析。为了凭经验进行这项分析，我们创建了一个数据集，其中包含 2020 年 3 月至 2020 年 4 月所有报告的 Zoombombing 案例。谷歌趋势、新闻媒体和推文被用来分析 Zoombombing 作为一种网络仇恨形式，尤其是数字种族主义。

发现

结果揭示了针对亚裔美国人、非裔美国人和犹太裔美国人普遍存在的以 Zoom 为媒介的种族主义。本研究通过对受害案件的新闻报道从社会政治/文化角度理解 Zoombombing，并探索 Zoombombing 塑造、调解、转变和升级种族主义的各种方式。

原创性/价值

这项研究是最早分析 Zoombombing 的研究之一，该研究以新兴的网络仇恨文献为基础。本文将 Zoom 视为一个空间，好奇的年轻人、网络犯罪分子、极端分子和黑客将他们的意识形态和信仰强加于新建立的在线学习和工作环境，并在越来越容易访问的易受攻击的软件和网络空间中进行身份识别斗争。