Online council meeting interrupted by ‘sex act’

‘Extremely inappropriate content’ displayed all over councillors’ screens

An online council meeting was hacked by a member of public who appeared to perform a sex act, leaving councillors “shocked and appalled”.

Flintshire council’s cabinet meeting was underway on Zoom when a man- whose identity has not been revealed- joined the link and could be heard speaking to councillors before taking over the screen.

The link was not available to the public, only elected members of the council.

The public can watch meetings online but cannot share content.

As a result of the shocking interruption, the council will now be strengthening security settings.

The meeting was paused within seconds, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, but was then later resumed.

Independent councillor and leader of the opposition Bernie Attridge said he could not believe what he was seeing.

He told the BBC: “At that point in the meeting a councillor was saying they were concerned their account had been hacked as messages began appearing in the chat function.”

‘Extremely inappropriate content’ was displayed all over Flintshire councillors’ screens (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The councillor said the incident endorses his belief that all council meetings should be held in County Hall, or at least in a hybrid format which allows them to be accessible online and in person.

However, he feels that continuing in the current online-only format would be the wrong move.

A council spokesperson told the BBC: “We shall be reviewing the security settings in meetings so that only designated officers can share content.

“A member of the public was given access to the link for this morning’s cabinet meeting on Zoom and shared some extremely inappropriate content.”

The spokesperson added that councillors will be reminded that the links to the meeting are not to be shared with the public. If the public wish to watch the meetings, they can join via the livestream link on the council’s website.