UK Parliament set to hold 'unprecedented' virtual debates amid coronavirus lockdown

British Parliament is preparing for virtual debates after Easter recess and paving way for a historic "hybrid" setting amid COVID-19 lockdown. lawmakers are required to pass bill on April 21 to hold virtual debates leing to unprecedented changes in House of Commons chamber to facilitate such proceedings.

As per current proposal, up to 120 lawmakers will be able to tune into statements and question session via video conferencing platform Zoom. However, a maximum of 50 MPs will be allowed into main debating room, seated at a safe distance from each or. virtual parliament will be held on April 22 when its feasibility will get tested.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will stand in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as latter is yet to fully recover from COVID-19. But use of Zoom for parliamentary proceedings could le to chaos since video conferencing platform has been vulnerable to hackers.

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Issues with Zoom

popularity of video conferencing platform skyrocketed after lockdowns and stay-at-home orders owing to pandemic which laid bare security flaws of application. Reports of “Zoombombing” flooded internet where users complained about interruptions by uninvited guests and posting hateful messs during online sessions.

German Foreign Ministry has alrey restricted its use to fixed-connection computers, barring its use on mobile devices due to lack of end-to-end encryption. A German daily h cited a memo issued by ministry to employees in which it highlighted “critical weaknesses” and “serious security and data protection problems” in Zoom’s software.

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On April 1, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan apologised to its users saying company fell short of clearly conveying encryption practices and incorrectly suggesting that Zoom meetings were capable of using end-to-end encryption. “While we never intended to deceive any of our customers, we recognize that re is a discrepancy between commonly accepted definition of end-to-end encryption and how we were using it,” company h said in a blog post.

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(Im source: AP)