The novel 'COVID-19' coronavirus has forced governments around the world to implement social distancing for its citizens.
In a good way, this should help limit the spread of the virus, and makes the pandemic easier to control. On the other hand, this results to people getting bored.
People forced to stay indoors for a long time apparently sparked them the idea of having a little bit of 'fun'.
One of the places of choice to have that fun, is through the popular group call provider Zoom.
The video-conferencing platform facilitates remote business meetings, and has become the solution to many for conducting face-to-face conversations.
With 200 millions users and counting, Zoom has become one of the fastest growing platform, considering that in 2019, it only had about 10 million users.
And with many of its users living in confinement due to the pandemic, bored, and probably lonely, the Rolling Stone reported that Zoom users have initiated virtual sex parties.
While parties through the web isn't at all surprising, sex parties are on not "acceptable".
In an effort to make its platform a safer place, especially during this global health crisis, Zoom wants to end this sex parties.
Activities like "play parties" or "the mutual appreciation jerk-off society" and many others that are certainly NSFW don't adhere to Zoom's Acceptable Use Policy.
The platform stated that it prohibits users from engaging "in any activity that is harmful, obscene, or indecent, particularly as such would be understood in the context of business usage." The policy specifies that the prohibited activities include the "displays of nudity, violence, pornography, sexually explicit material, or criminal activity."
Knowing that users may still do what they're not supposed to do on the platform, Zoom said that it uses machine learning to identify accounts in violation of its policies.
"We encourage users to report suspected violations of our policies, and we use a mix of tools, including machine learning, to proactively identify accounts that may be in violation," said a spokesperson for Zoom to Rolling Stone, as the company remains vague about its methods for identifying offending users and content.
With the many people are restricted from travelling and meeting others in real-life, communication through the internet is certainly booming.
Humans are social creatures need to socialize, and the limitations applied by the governments aren't stopping them from using online platforms for 'fun'.
Zoom's massive surge of users started when people wanted to keep in touch with others through this crisis. But then things started going sideways, with some started using it as a form of physiological release, with others using it to serve near-therapeutic purposes.
And sex parties inside closed doors through Zoom are just another byproduct of confinements.
From what appeared to be glimpses of nudity and flashing, grew to orgy parties, like the one hosted by the London-based sex club Killing Kittens. The trend has also caught the porn industry, where a director produced a lesbian orgy that was shot entirely with Zoom.
Zoom said that it "does not monitor your meetings or its contents." This means that it may not 'zoombomb' or 'peek' into meeting rooms to see or hear what's going on.
And with the many users it need to police, it's a wise decision for the company to rely on AI to keep everything in order. That despite the spokesperson pointed out that the the company has "fallen short" of users' "privacy and security expectations."
The Zoom spokesperson said that the platform is originally intended as a business tool. But users can use the platform the way they please, as long as they obey the rules.
If ever users are found doing "any activity that is harmful, obscene, or indecent, particularly as would be understood in the context of business usage," Zoom said that it would take a “number of actions” against them,