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Avoiding Zoombombing During Virtual Public Meetings

February 06, 2024

Editor’s Note: This article was adapted by VLCT Municipal Assistance Center staff from “Virtual Meetings and Avoiding Zoombombing” by Dene Westbrook of the Michigan Municipal League (April 2, 2020).  

Several of our members have begun conducting their public meetings in a hybrid or fully remote setting (under the temporary provisions of Act 1) using online conferencing platforms. We wanted to share some information regarding a phenomenon called “Zoombombing,” which some of you may have encountered. 

So-called “Zoombombing” is when someone (who may or may not be a resident of your community) joins a remote or hybrid meeting and causes disorder by saying offensive things in chat or during public comment, or by hijacking the meeting by screen sharing content on their computer. This can be disruptive and uncomfortable when offensive material or speech is shared. There are some things you can do to protect yourselves from Zoombombing and still stay within the confines of the Open Meeting Law (OML). Regardless of what platform you choose to host your meetings, the host/organizer of the meeting should be comfortable with the meeting controls and settings to best manage any potential disruptions. 

To better protect your meetings, use these best practices, being sure to double-check the relevant settings:  

  • Turn file sharing off – that way you’re not allowing a participant to send potential profane or virus-infected documents to other attendees.  
  • Disable screen sharing for attendees. This will prevent a hijack and potential visibility of profane or unwanted content in your meeting.  
  • Make sure that the platform’s mute/unmute settings are configured to mute all participants upon entry. In some platforms, you can also turn off the ability of people to unmute themselves so the meeting host must manually unmute people for the public comment period. This provides more control over when a participant can talk, ensuring that only those participants recognized by the chair are unmuted.  
  • Turn off video sharing in the meeting for participants. In some platforms, you can turn off the ability of people to share their video (e.g., camera) so that the meeting host must instead manually allow a person’s video feed for the public comment period, if so desired. This provides more control over when a participant’s video is shown.       
  • Don’t allow participants to join the meeting before you, the host/organizer. No one should be allowed entry unless the meeting has begun. This includes board members to ensure they are not present without the public.  
  • Turn off the annotation and whiteboard features (if any).  
  • Either turn off chat functionality completely or change your chat to only allow chat to presenters/hosts/panelists for technical issues, or for when it’s the public comment period.  
  • Warn all attendees against clicking unverified links.   
  • Set a meeting password. However, it must be clearly posted for the public with the public meeting notice or agenda for each meeting.  
  • Ensure that you have the latest software release from the service provider installed on your computer. Remote meeting software companies consistently update their programs to help prevent Zoombombing attacks and other security vulnerabilities.  

Unfortunately, these practices won’t fully protect you from participants who are intent on causing disorder during the public commenting period. If a participant’s comment results in disruptive behavior (e.g., by exceeding time limit or by providing irrelevant, repetitious, or disruptive speech) the chair of the public body can manage the comment per the board’s rules of procedure up to and including removing the disruptive speaker. Review our Model Rules of Procedure for Municipal Boards for information on managing disruptive behavior in accordance with the Open Meeting Law. 

External References  

Setting Up a Hybrid Public Meeting  

  • See VLCT's Hybrid Public Meeting Toolkit for resources on conducting a hybrid public meeting. The toolkit includes a checklist, model notice and agenda, and a model opening script. 
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