Papua Zoom meet hit by spam

Cry for freedom: Activists rallying in front of the Netherlands Embassy in Jakarta to draw awareness to Indonesia’s Papua region as Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima visit Indonesia. — AFP

A virtual discussion about human rights issues and the repression against Papuans’ freedom of expression held by rights group Amnesty International Indonesia was bombarded by spammers, in the latest show of disturbance against Indonesian activists recently.

The video conference that started at around 1pm was disturbed by unwanted intrusions, ranging from incoming spam calls to some of the speakers’ mobile phones from foreign numbers to “zoombombing”, a type of cyberattack in which unknown users drop in on Zoom sessions, often uninvited, to disturb meetings.