Facebook cancels F8 developer conference due to coronavirus

Facebook has cancelled its annual F8 developer conference due to the growing coronavirus outbreak.

In a statement posted on its Facebook for Developers site on Thursday, the company announced it was cancelling the “in-person component” of F8 2020 because of growing concerns around the coronavirus.

“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,” reads Facebook’s statement. “We explored other ways to keep the in-person part of F8, but it’s important to us to host an inclusive event and it didn’t feel right to have F8 without our international developers in attendance.”

The F8 conference was originally scheduled for May 5 and 6 in San Jose, California. Thousands of developers from around the world attend the event each year.

The company plans to put together “locally hosted events, videos and live streamed content” in place of the in-person F8 conference. The statement also references an “F8-inspired experience” the company's planning for the students who usually attend the event.

Facebook will be donating $500,000 to “organizations serving local San Jose residents.” The company had previously donated half of its ticket revenues from the annual event “to an organization working to diversify the tech industry.” According to Facebook, this year it is donating double the amount.

This isn’t the first major tech event to be cancelled due to the spread of the coronavirus. The organizers of the biggest annual phone show, Mobile World Congress, were forced to cancel this year’s event in Barcelona due to the epidemic.

In fact, this is the second event that Facebook has had to cancel due to the virus. Earlier this month, the social network announced it was canceling its global marketing summit that was scheduled to take place in March in San Francisco.

Facebook had also previously announced it was pulling out of events such as the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and PAX East in Boston because of the coronavirus.

The coronavirus has now spread from China to 46 other countries. Experts believe that there are more than 82,600 people infected around the world. More than 2,000 people have died.