Students Plan Protest Over Use Of Zoom For Lessons

A group representing secondary school students said on Tuesday that it is going to organise a "non-cooperation movement" to protest against the use of the video meetings app Zoom for online learning, over security concerns and the technology's links to the mainland.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, Zoom has become a popular platform for online schooling, meetings and press conferences.

But questions have been raised over how secure the service is, following reports that some users may have had their data transferred to third parties. A recent report by The Citizen Lab found that meeting data was being routed through servers in China.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, the Hong Kong Secondary Schools Student Strike Platform said it had surveyed 12,000 secondary school students who are obliged to follow classes via Zoom, and found that 80 percent are opposed to using the software.

About 87 percent of those against the use of the app said they are worried about personal information being leaked.

The group's spokesperson Isaac Cheng said: "We see a lot of great concerns about Zoom, especially as it is launched by people from China and maybe there's private information that can be sent to the Chinese government. Since a lot of students took part in the protests we are afraid that those information will be sent to the Chinese government."

The group said it is planning a non-cooperation movement among students, that will involve those taking part turning off their web cameras during the Zoom classes, as a form of protest.

It also urged schools to use alternative video conferencing services such as Google Meet, YouTube live or Facebook live for online learning, instead of Zoom.

The group also urged the government to postpone DSE exams due to start in 10 days' time, saying that a majority of students don't feel they can take the exams unless the coronavirus epidemic is under control.

In a separate poll involving 10,000 students -- about one-fifth of all form six students due to take the DSE exams -- 90 percent said they opposed the plan for the exams to go ahead from April 24.

More than half said they wanted the exams to be postponed until the Covid-19 situation is under control.

Only 36 percent of those surveyed thought the exams should be cancelled altogether with candidates being graded using school assessments, while 21 percent said all form six students should repeat the year and take the exams next year.

"We are proposing to suspend the DSE examinations from 24 April to July. This is our proposal and this is the best scenario that we are proposing to the government," Cheng said.

Education Secretary Kevin Yeung said on Monday that the target date for exams remains April 24, but the health of students is the priority. The exams were originally due to begin towards the end of March.