Friedberg, BrianLim, GrabrielleDonovan, Joan2025-09-182020-09Hansen, Elizabeth, and Marc Hand. “The National Trust for Local News.” Shorenstein Center Discussion Paper Series. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, September 2020.https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/42719533Within days of the virtual meeting platform Zoom becoming a household name, news spread that meetings were being hijacked by uninvited guests. The practice was quickly dubbed Zoom bombing. Zoom bombing is a novel form of raiding or bombing, a common type of coordinated online attack. In this report, we examine how Zoom bombing works, the sociotechnical systems that enabled it, and the networked terrain of the attacks. Zoom bombing illustrates that networked participatory technology is often used in malicious or mischievous ways its creators and clients did not — but should have — foreseen.Working Paper