Coronavirus: Facebook Cancels F8 Developers Conference

The rapid spread of the deadly coronavirus virus has continued to affect sustenance of major events around the world and Facebook has also canceled its biggest annual event F8 developers conference.

Naija News learnt the biggest annual event for the US tech giant was nullified over fears about the possible spread of the novel coronavirus.

“In light of the growing concerns around COVID-19, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person component of F8 this year, in order to prioritize the health and safety of our developer partners, employees and everyone who helps put F8 on,” Facebook said.

Face-to-face interaction at the conference center in San Jose will be replaced with presentations streamed online. F8 sessions and demonstrations usually span its “family” of offerings including the main social network, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and virtual reality unit Oculus.

“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,” director of platform partnerships Konstantinos Papamiltiadis said in a message to developers.

“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.”

Naija News recalls that the deadly virus  has spread across to sub-Saharan Africa with Nigeria recording it first case yesterday. Although the government of nigeria has reinstated  it commitment to curb the spread of the virus within the country.