A Facebook event called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” has caught the internet by storm. After the event garnered many followers, the U.S. Air Force has made it clear that it is ready to protect the restricted area. According to its statement, the Air Force is ready to,“protect America and its assets”, even if against citizens.
To be fair, the originator of the Facebook event said that it was a joke the whole time, pinning a post underthe event writing, “Hello US government, this is a joke, and I do not actually intend to go ahead with this plan. I just thought it would be funny and get me some thumbsy uppies on the internet”. Clever, but we’ll see if that holds up in court, buddy.
Even if it were intended to be a joke originally, it’s unclear if all the users who signed up for the event feel the same. There’s no reason they should have loyalty to the creator of the event, and he or she has no way of stopping those who are taking the Facebook event seriously.