Facebook adds fuel to coronavirus panic by CANCELING 'in-person' part of developer conference

A developer conference hosted by Facebook is the latest victim of growing international alarm over the spread of coronavirus, with the tech giant calling off the ‘in-person’ part of the event a month before it is to take place.

The F8 Facebook Developer Conference is scheduled to run on May 5 and 6 in San Jose, California.

“This was a tough call to make,” Facebook’s director of developer platforms and programs Konstantinos Papamiltiadis said in a company blog post on Thursday. “But we need to prioritize the health and safety of our developer partners, employees and everyone who helps put F8 on.”

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Papamiltiadis added that instead of the “in-person component” of the conference, the company is planning “other ways for our community to get together through a combo of locally hosted events, videos and live streamed content.”

It’s not the first high-profile tech event to be scuppered amid fears of coronavirus becoming a global pandemic. Earlier this month, the Mobile World Congress — due to be held in Barcelona, Spain — was canceled. Although the Game Developers Conference is still going ahead in San Francisco next month, major industry players including Microsoft, Sony and Unity have already pulled out.

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