Zoom is in big political and public relations trouble after it suspended three accounts run by Chinese dissidents for holding online meetings related to the anniversary of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square protests

"Zoom operates in over 80 countries," said an unsigned post on the Zoom blog yesterday (June 11)

All three of the suspended accounts were operated by non-Mainland Chinese, although two of the dissidents were in the US and the third was in Hong Kong, and all three meetings organized by these accounts had or were scheduled to have participants from Mainland China were found to have been

"The Chinese government informed us that this activity is illegal in China and requested that Zoom terminate the meetings and the hosting accounts," the blog post stated

Zoom did not take action on the fourth account that the Chinese government wanted "terminated" because the Zoom-related meeting "had no participants from mainland China"

Zoom is caught between a rock and a hard place here The company is a US company, but like many US companies, it has facilities and servers in China, and its CEO and founder, Eric S Yuan, is a naturalized US citizen, born, raised, and educated in China

Zoom must comply with Chinese laws regarding activities that occur in China, such as Chinese residents dialing into Zoom meetings held abroad

Zoom's blog states that given the limitations of its technology, it had no legal recourse other than to suspend (not "terminate" as the Chinese government had hoped) the meeting host account

"Currently, there is no ability to block participants by country," the blog post states

Naturally, this led to an uproar in the United States Several US congressmen and senators wrote angry letters asking whether Zoom routinely shared data with the Chinese government, whether other accounts owned by Chinese dissidents had ever been suspended, and even whether Chinese Communist Party officials were stationed in Zoom's China office sent to Zoom

However, Zoom said it was working on a solution

"Over the next few days, Zoom is developing technology that will allow deletion or blocking at the participant level based on geographic criteria," Zoom's blog stated

"Going forward, Zoom will not allow requests from the Chinese government to affect anyone outside of mainland China

Of course, that won't please everyone In particular, Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, has a reputation for being both tough and tech-savvy

"Your actions to date suggest not an innocent desire to comply with 'local laws' but a desire to placate the CCP and facilitate access to its markets," Hawley wrote in a letter to Yuan Now is the time for you to choose sides: the American principle and free speech, or the immediate global interests and censorship"