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.”

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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