A racist and pornographic Zoom bomb causes progressive group to cancel event with NJ governor candidate Ras Baraka

A progressive organization’s Zoom event with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to discuss his campaign for New Jersey governor was abruptly cancelled on Sunday after a racist and pornographic cyber attack broke loose.

Action Together New Jersey organized the informational event about Baraka’s campaign to kickoff a series spotlighting candidates for governor. Baraka is one of two Black men running for the seat in a crowded primary.

Sunday’s Zoom attack was multi-pronged, according to people who attended the meeting. The chaos included pornographic videos of Black men, racist slurs and attacks, and what appeared to be a young boy — or bot disguised as one — praising President Donald Trump. The civic advocacy group and progressive Democrat have both experienced similar attacks before.

Uyen Khuong, the executive director of the Action Together New Jersey, only got to introduce the program before what appeared to be a dozen bots joined the call Sunday evening, she said. She said the event required names and contact information through pre-registration, as well as a password, but that there was “definitely technology wizardry happening” to disrupt the conversation.

“It was within seconds of introducing Mayor Baraka that this happened,” she said. " ... We were scrambling to block everybody, to remove them, but they were popping up. It was whack-a-mole.”

She plans file a case with the FBI and the New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office’s civil rights division about Sunday’s attack.

Khuong said the group was similarly “Zoom bombed” five years ago when it hosted the NAACP with a predominately Black audience. She reported that attack to the FBI and is scheduled to testify remotely as a witness in a Danish case about the incident. That time, racist attacks were accompanied by a video of people being beheaded.

It’s also not the first time Baraka’s campaign has been “bombed” on Zoom.

Several people attending the event said they also witnessed a Zoom attack at an online meeting put on by Baraka’s campaign for volunteers last month, which his campaign confirmed.

That attack — albeit less complex — also showed people of color in porn that popped up on the screen in front of an audience that was predominantly people of color. Unlike Sunday’s attack, that disruption didn’t include racist remarks, according to one person familiar with the call.

Baraka praised the group’s handling of Sunday’s attack and tied it into his message on the campaign trail.

“The racist and disgusting actions by agitators are exactly the kind of divisive vitriol born from Trump’s culture of hate,” Baraka said. " … But let’s be clear, this will not deter us. We are undaunted by racism, unshaken by bigotry, and more committed than ever to building a New Jersey rooted in dignity and equity. This is precisely why this race for governor matters so much and we will keep pushing forward, together.”

Because of the attack, Action Together New Jersey will now host candidates through a webinar format in which attendees cannot speak and participate as freely as before.

Karen M. Turner, an Action Together member and emerita professor at Temple University, said the graphic Zoom attack on Sunday was “more than disturbing.”

“Is this where we are?” she said. “We can’t even have conversations that involve politics. … How do we find out people’s positions and stuff when we’re afraid to even get into a Zoom call? It was just awful.”