In a major embarrassing moment for Pullela Gopichand, pornographic images popped up on Friday during an online badminton session of coaches. As per reports, the conference was attended by 700 coaches when pornographic images popped up on Zoom.
The 21-day session is being organised by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) and the Sports Authority of India (SAI). Along with Gopichand, top Indonesian coaches like Agus Dwi Santoso and Namrih Suroto were also overseeing the coaches' session.
Other than the coaches attending the programme, some children and parents were reportedly also online observing the proceedings.
As per a coach, Santoso was in charge of the proceedings when the picture started to pop up. The issue remained intermittent throughout the session, even making Gophichand logout.
"Santoso, the new Indonesian coach, was the resource person when pictures started appearing on the screen. There was a momentary gap and then the images resurfaced. This happened a number of times," a participant said.
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Another coach said that several women coaches, parents and children were also part of the programme.
"When you are conducting a programme on such a large scale you should take precautions. There were several women coaches, parents and some children in the programme, though it is meant only for coaches," he said.
"We should have heeded the home ministry's advice. There are so many other platforms. What if something similar happens during online classes by schools?" asked another coach.
The Zoom video platform has been under scrutiny for quite a while for its poor security measures. The government has even advised people against using this platform.