Corona virus concerns prompt cancellation of Facebook F8 developer conference
The cancellation of Facebook’s biggest event of the year, which
was set for May, follows in the footsteps of Mobile World Congress.
Facebook said Thursday it's canceling
its F8 developer conference, the social media giant’s biggest event of the
year, over concerns about the novel coronavirus. The unusual move illustrates
how the outbreak of COVID-19, the respiratory illness the virus causes, is
impacting the world’s largest tech companies.
Facebook’s mostly-annual conference
was scheduled to take place at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center on May 5
and 6. It is a widely anticipated Facebook event, and last year attracted more
than 5,000 developers, creators, and entrepreneurs from around the globe.
“This was a tough call to make — F8
is an incredibly important event for Facebook and it’s one of our favorite ways
to celebrate all of you from around the world — but we need to prioritize the
health and safety of our developer partners, employees and everyone who helps
put F8 on,” Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, Facebook’s director of developer
platforms and programs said in a statement.
Facebook’s decision to scrub F8
follows the cancellation of the Mobile World Congress, the giant mobile phone
conference held in Barcelona. Concerns about the virus have affected other
events, including a Facebook marketing summit and the RSA Conference, which is
currently taking place in San Francisco. Facebook, along with Sony and
Microsoft has also pulled out of the upcoming Game Developers Conference.
Concerns about the virus have grown so great that the IOC is weighing if it
might need to cancel the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The coronavirus, which was discovered
in December in China, has killed more than 2,800 people and infected more than
82,600.
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