“Zoombombing,” a new type of trolling done by crashing on Zoom video calls, is now being used by racist individuals to spew hateful comments against Asians.

Members of the Filipino American student organization Andrés Bonifacio Samahan at San Diego State University were recently harassed by these so-called “Zoombombers,” reported KFMB.

We were having our Q&A Night for board elections and multiple random users joined the call. They interrupted with inappropriate comments pertaining to the virus and one continued to mock the Chinese language. It was horrifying. pic.twitter.com/RhSheSByCh — lana (76%) (@_baetista) April 11, 2020

The group was conducting a meeting with more than 40 members on Zoom on Friday when the trolls crashed their session and used racial slurs and derogatory language related to the novel coronavirus against the students.

Lana Bautista, a chairperson of the organization, took to social media to condemn the abuse and call attention to such attacks.

@zoom_us allow users to report such activity. monitor your calls. i ran a conference with over 40+ individuals, all of which who identify as asian, and each one of them were verbally attacked and degraded tonight. do something about it. — lana (76%) (@_baetista) April 11, 2020

“This incident lasted for not even 5 minutes yet it had me and my members shocked,” Bautista wrote. “See how none of us knew how to react when it happened. I HATE how I couldn’t shield my community from something so horrible. It haunts me even hours later.

this incident lasted for not even 5 minutes yet it had me and my members shocked. see how none of us knew how to react when it happened. i HATE how i couldn’t shield my community from something so horrible. it haunts me even hours later. https://t.co/kgkhAQCsV5 — lana (76%) (@_baetista) April 11, 2020

Francis Cadiz, treasurer of the organization, told KFMB that the group felt threatened by what they heard.

“You could see it on their faces,” Cadiz was quoted as saying. “Distraught, anger and disappointment, some were even crying after that [call]. It really was such a big shock to all of us.”

Cadiz noted that beyond this incident on Zoom, his fellow members have been experiencing discrimination in public since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

“They would notice treatment they would receive is slightly different than normally what they would get,” he said.

Many have taken to Twitter to support the student organization and denounce the Zoombombing.

no words. just so extremely angry right now that something like this happened to me and my org. no one EVER deserves to go through this. no one. my heart aches for my community https://t.co/R2yhYYOKOO — dani (@ellacluistro) April 11, 2020

UNACCEPTABLE. you’re a fucking loser if you bring your racism & xenophobia to a zoom session meant to empower POC and be a safe space for our community. https://t.co/rwiqgDFUAz — miranda ❀ (@mirandamakana) April 11, 2020

Watching this makes me so angry. The blatant ignorance of people who were too cowardly to show their face. To everyone on that call, y’all don’t deserve that. And the AAPI community, y’all don’t deserve the racism and discrimination that has occured from COVID-19 ❤️❤️ @ABSamahan https://t.co/DIDEJ2n0eE — darren (@darrentweeted) April 11, 2020

At a time where the world desires peace, the insidious nature of racial dynamics & persistent power structures continue to disrupt the healing of an already targeted and affected community Now, more than ever, are advocacy efforts necessitated as we empower & support each other — gudegrandma (@aaleggre) April 11, 2020

explain to me how – my beautiful people right here – who were on this call to promote filipinx culture and instill inclusive values in each other were also the ones who deserved the horrific surprise of derogatory slurs and racial accusations pic.twitter.com/qocBksscGG — Lex (@lexxluthorrr) April 11, 2020

In a statement to News 8, a Zoom representative said the company “strongly condemns” such behavior, while providing steps to minimize or avoid such attacks in the future:

“We are deeply upset to hear about the incidents involving this type of attack. We take the security of Zoom meetings seriously and in order to prevent such incidents from occurring, we strongly encourage users to arrange their settings so that only hosts can share their screens, and utilize features such as ‘Waiting Room’ and host muting controls. We have encouraged our education users in particular to follow the guidance contained here — and we recently updated the default screen sharing settings for education users enrolled in our K-12 program so teachers by default are the only ones who can share content in class.”

The company also stressed that they are “committed to maintaining an equal, respectful and inclusive online environment for all our users regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation and gender identity, age, disability or genetics. “

The spokesperson also urged users to “report any incidents of this kind directly so we can take appropriate action.”

Meanwhile, SDSU posted the following statement on the SDSU Division of Diversity & Innovation Facebook account:

Feature Image via @lexxluthorrr