Zoom has reportedly started limiting new user registrations in mainland China to enterprise customers only.
Free users in mainland China can continue to join Zoom meetings hosted by registered users, but new user registrations will only be available to enterprise customers who sign up for the teleconferencing service through an authorized sales representative.
Donghan Telecom has said the restriction on individual accounts in mainland China is due to "regulatory requirements.” At this time, Zoom has declined to comment on the matter.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Zoom has surged in popularity, as individuals and companies have started using the service to stay in touch with one another and remain productive while working remotely.
While Zoom has celebrated this surge in users, it has also faced a backlash from cyber security experts. The spike in security concerns has caused the company to instil a 90-day moratorium on all new features so it can focus on bolstering safety and security.
The company has also been under scrutiny from the US government, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Zoom a "Chinese entity.” Zoom had previously admitted it “mistakenly” routed some call data through China, regardless of the user’s location. Zoom has since promised such mishaps won’t happen again.
"Recently, questions have also been raised about Zoom and China," Zoom founder, Eric Yuan, wrote in a blog post on the company's website.
"At first, this seemed to stem from a temporary misconfiguration in our global data center routing that we fixed. But outside of that isolated incident, in the past few weeks, we have seen disheartening rumors and misinformation cropping up."
Yuan stressed in the post that Zoom is a Nasdaq-listed American company, adding that he became a US citizen in 2007 and has "lived happily in America since 1997." Yuan also responded to those criticizing the company for its research and development facilities in China.
"Similar to many multinational technology companies, Zoom has operations and employees in China," Yuan shared. "And like many multinational technology companies, our offices in China are operated by subsidiaries of the U.S. parent company."
