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Facebook cancels global marketing conference due to the coronavirus outbreak

Facebook cancels global marketing conference due to the coronavirus outbreak

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There were 4,000 people expected to attend

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook has canceled its upcoming global marketing conference out of caution for the coronavirus outbreak, according to Reuters. The conference was set to take place in March at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, and 4,000 people were expected to attend.

“Our priority is the health and safety of our teams, so out of an abundance of caution, we cancelled our Global Marketing Summit due to evolving public health risks related to coronavirus,” said a Facebook spokesperson in a statement to The Verge.

Facebook canceling its global marketing conference comes on the heels of this week’s cancellation of Mobile World Congress, also due to coronavirus concerns. In the days leading up to MWC’s cancelation, several vendors, including LG, Ericsson, Nvidia, Intel, Vivo, Sony, Amazon, NTT Docomo, Cisco, Nokia, BT, and HMD, all pulled out from the show over fears of endangering attendees.

Coronavirus has infected more than 49,000 people to date, and 1,383 people have died so far from the disease. It has had wide-ranging effects on the tech industry, including store closures, production shortages, and manufacturing delays. Right now, the virus does not seem to be spreading widely in other countries besides China, and the World Health Organization has not made a recommendation to cancel meetings outside of China.

You can read all of The Verge’s coverage of coronavirus right here.

Update February 14th, 8:59PM ET: Added statement provided by Facebook.