Ride the Lightning

Porn and Memes Disrupt Novak Djokovic’s Visa Hearing

January 12, 2022

We just don’t seem to learn simple lessons.  Here’s a case in point.

Vice reported on January 10 that a virtual hearing with Australia’s Federal Circuit Court to determine whether tennis star Novak Djokovic could keep his visa was interrupted by meme noises, music, and porn clips.

Djokovic is the world’s top tennis player, and the defending champion of the Australian Open. He’s also an anti-vaxxer and one of a small number of players granted health exemptions to play without being vaccinated against COVID-19 by Tennis Australian and Victoria’s Department of Health.

When he tried to enter Australia, he was detained by the Australian Border Force because he didn’t meet the vaccination requirements for travelers to the country. His visa was cancelled, and he was placed in an immigration detention hotel. The hearing was to determine whether he should be allowed free to enter the country.

Same old story – like so many other hearings and publicly open meetings, Djokovic’s hearing was used by viewers to show porn. According to Reuters, the disaster was the result of multiple links to the hearing being passed around, some to the public and others to journalists. The court sent a Microsoft Teams link to journalists for the proceedings which naturally and foreseeably made its way to social media. That link expired, and the court replaced it with a different link, which journalists weren’t aware of. The new link, however, crashed because too many people tried to use it.

Four hours into the hearing, the court sent another link to its YouTube channel for members of the public to watch.

Certainly, we’ve seen “Zoom bombing” before and should have learned our lessons. Uninvited viewers hijack virtual meetings, through links that were made public by the host or through bad login protection (such as placing the meeting password on a public website or invitation).

Public links are a bad idea – and allowing attendees to share their screen or not keeping them muted is just plain stupid.

And if you are wondering how the hearing turned out, the judge ruled that Novak would be free to enter, but the Minister for Immigration Alex Hawke said that he may personally intervene to cancel his visa again.

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
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Digital Forensics/Cybersecurity/Information Technology
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