Twitter pulls out of SXSW conference over coronavirus concerns
Twitter is canceling employee travel to the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, including CEO Jack Dorsey’s planned keynote, due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. The company announced Sunday it was halting all “non-critical business travel and events”, saying the policy was effective immediately and would remain in place until a vaccine was available, or until “the World Health Organization or Centers for Disease Control deem it appropriate to step back from pandemic precautionary measures.”
Twitter spokesperson Siobhan Murphy said in an email to The Verge on Monday that the employee travel restriction “unfortunately includes SXSW.” As late as February 27th, Twitter representatives were emailing reporters to gauge interest in its TwitterHouse at SXSW which was slated to have “a variety of events and programming.” Murphy said there would be “more details to come on any programming or plans for the #TwitterHouse.”
A petition calling for the cancellation of the annual music and tech festival over coronavirus concerns has more than 15,000 signatures as of Monday morning. South by Southwest officials said Sunday that the festival is still scheduled to go on as planned, but that they were “working closely on a daily basis with local, state, and federal agencies” around coronavirus concerns.
Several large events have been canceled or postponed because of the coronavirus, including Mobile World Congress, Facebook’s F8 developer conference, the annual Game Developers’ Conference, PAX East, and the Geneva Motor Show.
COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has infected more than 89,000 people worldwide. More than 3,000 people have died, including two people in the US over the weekend.
Twitter is canceling employee travel to the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, including CEO Jack Dorsey’s planned keynote, due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. The company announced Sunday it was halting all “non-critical business travel and events”, saying the policy was effective immediately and would remain…
