A Note from ACM SIGKDD

(Published: Thu, August 27, 2020)

The ACM SIGKDD community is firmly committed to creating an inclusive digital environment. We are actively against discrimination of any form, seen or unseen, in person or virtual, and determined all SIGKDD activities, including the KDD conference, maintain the highest standard of ethics.

We are deeply saddened and disappointed to learn some of our sessions were “zoombombed” yesterday by persons with malicious intent. We take this very seriously and would like to express our deepest regret that this occurred and apologize to the presenters and participants who were affected. In addition to helping Zoom with a full investigation, an emergency meeting of the Organizing Committee was held to develop a series of measures to prevent future incidents of this nature.

Specifically, all KDD sessions using the Zoom platform will now adhere to the following protocols:

• Session chairs are accorded co-host/host privileges to act immediately, taking any necessary measures to stop and eject offenders, and in some cases, shutdown a portion or the entirety of a Zoom session;
• By default, audience members’ audio will be muted, annotation disabled and chat function unavailable; the audience may use safer measures to draw attention, including reactions or video prompts;
• Audiences will no longer be able to rename themselves;
• In the event a Zoom session must be shut down, the conference will have new logins available on standby. The restart will be announced via an email from Whova;
• Attendees should not share zoom links with anyone through email or social media platforms.

We remain committed to avoiding any occurrences of harassment or intimidation within our community. Any incident of harassment or violation of the ACM SIGKDD Code of Ethics will draw a swift response. Offenders will be shut down, reported and held accountable for their actions in accordance with California state laws.

The KDD conference strives to be a safe place for data science researchers and practitioners to come together for the betterment of ourselves, our field, and society as a whole.