Zoom exec 'Charged with Disrupting Video Meetings Commemorating Tiananmen Square Massacre'

A complaint and arrest warrant were unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Xinjiang Jin, also known as “Julien Jin,” with conspiracy to commit interstate harassment and unlawful conspiracy to transfer a means of identification.  Jin, an employee of a U.S.-based telecommunications company (Company-1) who was based in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), allegedly participated in a scheme to disrupt a series of meetings in May and June 2020 held to commemorate the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in the PRC.  The meetings were conducted using a videoconferencing program provided by Company-1, and were organized and hosted by U.S-based individuals, including individuals residing in the Eastern District of New York.  Jin is not in U.S. custody.

“China-Based Executive At U.S. Telecommunications Company Charged With Disrupting Video Meetings Commemorating Tiananmen Square Massacre.” 2020. The United States Department of Justice. December 18, 2020. https://web.archive.orghttps://web.archive.org/web/20201219113419/https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/china-based-executive-us-telecommunications-company-charged-disrupting-video-meetings.

And:

“The allegations in the complaint lay bare the Faustian bargain that the PRC government demands of U.S. technology companies doing business within the PRC’s borders, and the insider threat that those companies face from their own employees in the PRC,” said Acting United States Attorney Seth D. DuCharme.  “As alleged, Jin worked closely with the PRC government and members of PRC intelligence services to help the PRC government silence the political and religious speech of users of the platform of a U.S. technology company.  Jin willingly committed crimes, and sought to mislead others at the company, to help PRC authorities censor and punish U.S. users’ core political speech merely for exercising their rights to free expression.  The charges announced today make clear that employees working in the PRC for U.S. technology companies make those companies—and their users—vulnerable to the malign influence of the PRC government.  This Office will continue working tirelessly to protect against threats to the free expression of political views and religious beliefs, regardless whether those threats come from inside or outside the United States.”

“China-Based Executive At U.S. Telecommunications Company Charged With Disrupting Video Meetings Commemorating Tiananmen Square Massacre.” 2020. The United States Department of Justice. December 18, 2020. https://web.archive.orghttps://web.archive.org/web/20201219113419/https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/china-based-executive-us-telecommunications-company-charged-disrupting-video-meetings.

This is nothing new and I have written about this before.

The outrageous thing here is also old: Zoom continues to do China's bidding as if the freedom of Chinese citizens and dissidents doesn't matter. This also goes for their adulation for the government of Israel, and, at least indirectly, the destruction of the population of Palestine, although Zoom have directly acted against Palestine dissidents.

Greed builds greed and rarely fosters empathy. Zoom cares about itself. If Zoom were a person, would you befriend it?

Throw Zoom where it belongs. Use Jitsi Meet and Element.