Facebook has indicated that it will skip the tech industry’s largest annual events as companies continue to be cautious about travel on fears of the coronavirus outbreak. On Monday, the company confirmed that it will not attend this year’s South by Southwest conferences scheduled to take place in Austin, Texas.

Facebook and Twitter to skip the SXSW conference on fears of coronavirus

In a statement, Facebook indicated that it will not be participating in the conference this year because of concerns related to the coronavirus outbreak.  The SXSW conference, which was established in 1987, usually brings together the big tech companies from media, music, and film annually in Austin.

The announcement comes after Twitter also indicated over the weekend that it is suspending all “non-critical business events and travel.” Twitter is also encouraging its employees to work from home, and as a result, it will also skip the conference. All non-business travels that the company canceled include the SXSW conference where Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was expected to give a presentation.

In recent weeks Facebook has taken several measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The company has indicated that it will restrict social visits to physician offices and that it will be carrying job interviews through video conferencing. Last week the company announced the cancellation of the in-person portion of the F8 developer conference that was expected to take place on May 5th and 6th. Previously the social media giant had canceled the global marketing conference that was to be held on February 14th.

Tech events canceled

The SXSW event is not the only event that tech companies are skipping because of coronavirus. Microsoft and Google have also canceled two of their small conference, but their major developer conferences scheduled for May are still in place for now. The Game Developers Conference expected to occur later this month has also been moved to this summers.

Equally, the Mobile World Congress that was to take place in Barcelona at the end of last month got canceled two weeks before the due date of the show.