The techniques disclosed herein provide dynamic permissions for controlling messages directed to a presenter of a communication system. For example, during a presentation of an online meeting, a system may selectively permit private messages to be sent to a presenter from designated participants. The private messages sent from the designated participants are displayed to the presenter in a manner that does not allow the other participants to see the messages. For instance, if the presenter is sharing a screen from a computer, the system can determine a set of permitted users allowed to send messages to the presenter. The system configures permissions to cause the messages to be displayed in a manner that allows the presenter to view the messages along with their presentation content, while restricting or suppressing the display of the messages to other non-permitted users. The system restricts the non-permitted users from sending messages to the presenter.