Raising speech fears, Zoom briefly shuts account over Tiananmen

Zoom said Wednesday that it had temporarily closed a US account of activists who met to mark the anniversary of China’s crackdown in Tiananmen Square, raising alarm over free speech on the fast-growing video-meeting service.

US-based rights campaigners turned to Zoom, which has become a way of life for many people during the coronavirus lockdown, to connect more than 250 people to remember Beijing’s crushing of the pro-democracy uprising on June 4, 1989.

The group Humanitarian China said it had brought in numerous participants from inside China, which has tried to erase memories of the bloodshed — and that its paid Zoom account was shut down without explanation one week later.