After the Indian authorities banned 59 apps owned by Chinese corporations final week, the videoconferencing app Zoom is combating xenophobic rumors on social media that it’s Chinese-owned. It’s not — the corporate is American and is scrambling to let Indians know.
In a weblog publish on Tuesday, Velchamy Sankarlingam, Zoom’s president of product and engineering, tried to clear up misinformation about Zoom’s nation of origin. The firm, he reminded individuals, is predicated within the United States.
“We do recognize that as we continue to introduce ourselves to the Indian market, there has been some confusion about the facts as it relates to Zoom. Some of the misconceptions are disheartening, especially those about Zoom and China. Zoom has been clear about its identity: Zoom is a U.S. company, publicly traded on the NASDAQ, founded and headquartered in San Jose, California. And like many global technology companies, Zoom has offices in China operated by subsidiaries of the U.S. parent company.”
Sankarlingam’s publish got here days after India’s ban on apps from Chinese corporations together with TikTok, following border clashes between the nations. In the times previous the ban, Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned prompt messaging app that the majority Indians use, had been crammed with messages urging nationalistic Indians to uninstall apps owned by Chinese corporations.
Some of those messages, nonetheless, incorrectly recognized Zoom as a Chinese-owned app.
One of the forwards that went viral on WhatsApp was a listing of 40 apps, which included Zoom. “China is earning crores of money per day by Above apps,” the message mentioned, referring to an Indian unit of financial measurement. “You should uninstall these Apps as soon as possible from your mobile & ask 10 friends and further their friends to do the same. Accept the Challenge! #Boycott China.”
Shortly after the ban, a glut of native opponents sprung up with their very own variations of the restricted apps. Last week, India’s Jio Platforms, the nation’s largest telecom firm, rushed out its personal videoconferencing app referred to as JioMeet, which was criticized for being a Zoom rip-off.
