People have started entering public Zoom video calls and sharing graphic, sexual videos.

It happened during a Zoom call on Tuesday hosted by venture capitalist Hunter Walk and The Verge’s Casey Newton, as first reported by TechCrunch.

The issue is caused by a default setting in Zoom that automatically allows anyone to share their screen without the host’s permission.

If you host Zoom calls with large groups or if you share the link to your Zoom chats publicly, you can go into your Zoom settings and shut this off ahead of time.

Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Imagine you’re on a video chat with your colleagues and peers, responsibly socializing amid the coronavirus outbreak. All of a sudden, instead of the faces of people you know, you see graphic, sexual videos pop up and disappear like whack-a-mole.

That’s exactly what happened on Tuesday evening to venture capitalist Hunter Walk and The Verge’s Casey Newton, who were attempting to host what they call “#WFHappyHour,” a daily Zoom chat with members of the tech industry.

According to TechCrunch’s Josh Constine, someone entered the call – the link to which had been tweeted out by Walk and Newton – and started sharing their screen, displaying porn videos to the other members of the call. Constine described it as “ZoomBombing.”

The troll was able to keep re-entering the call using a new username, and the only way to stop the call was to shut down the chat completely.

Because the link to the call was shared publicly, anyone was able to enter the chat. Once there, the troll – or trolls – began sharing their screen, which were playing graphic videos. The default setting on Zoom allows anyone to share their screens without permission from the call’s host.

A spokesperson for Zoom did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment on the software’s default settings, and whether Zoom would adjust them as the technology becomes a popular way for people to connect during the coronavirus outbreak.

Zoom has recently seen a sharp uptick in usage as more workers shift to remote work as the virus continues to spread. The company has added 2.22 million monthly active users in 2020, which is more than all of 2019 combined. Zoom shares have shot up 40% this month, despite a downturn in the global economy, according to CNBC.

But if you’re among the millions of users using Zoom’s platform, you don’t have to be too worried about being “ZoomBombed”: there’s a way to turn off the screen-sharing setting and other potentially hazardous options. Here’s how to do it.

When you open Zoom on your computer, you’ll see the “Settings” menu on the left-hand side. Click on that …

Foto: Source: Zoom/Business Insider

… and scroll down until you get to this section. The “Screen sharing” setting is automatically toggled to “on” — turn that feature off.

Foto: Source: Zoom/Business Insider

This is best to do before a call, but if you forget, there’s a way to do it during a call as well.

While you’re at it, disable “File transfer,” too. It’s automatically toggled on, but this would allow anyone to send you a file during a call. If you’re doing public Zoom calls, definitely toggle this to “off” as well.

Foto: Source: Zoom/Business Insider