Facebook Employees Given ‘All Clear’ To Return Following Bomb Threat At Silicon Valley Headquarters
On Tuesday, police responded to a bomb threat at Facebook’s headquarters in Silicon Valley, but a lengthy search revealed there was nothing amiss. Police have given the employees the “all clear” and permitted them to resume work as usual.
According to Business Insider, the New York Police Department received an anonymous tip regarding the bombing. Police immediately contacted authorities in Menlo Park, California, alerting them to the claim at about 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. Police were able to secure the location and determine there was no threat after several hours of searching.
“The San Mateo County bomb unit was dispatched with explosive detection dogs that conducted a sweep of the building and found no suspicious packages or devices,” they said in a statement. “The building is all clear and secure.”
Everyone has been declared safe following the evacuation and investigation. Only certain buildings on the campus were evacuated; the headquarters building was reportedly not among them, but several other buildings reportedly were part of the evacuation.
The bomb threat comes at a particularly tense time for tech companies. Earlier this year, a woman walked into YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California, and opened fire. She injured four people before turning the gun on herself.
Police sound 'all clear' after bomb threat at Facebook's Silicon Valley headquarters https://t.co/1qEPkfI08d pic.twitter.com/FfE8o4kUMB
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 12, 2018
Police are now investigating the bomb threat itself, looking to determine who made the claim. Menlo Park Police are working closely with the New York Police Department on the matter. The original tip was sent in through the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Unit.
“We take the safety and security of our people at Facebook extremely seriously and are glad that everyone is safe,” the spokesperson said in an official statement. “We are working closely with local authorities to investigate this threat and further monitor the situation.”
Facebook has had a challenging year. Between security breaches, accusations of fake news stories, and admitting to hiring a PR firm that made political attacks, the social media giant has seen its user numbers — and stocks — suffering as a result.
The company has also been forced to deal with accusations of its involvement, intentional or otherwise, with Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Google and Twitter were also victims of this interference, according to a report by the New York Times. Experts believe that the inflammatory (and often outright wrong) social media posts reached over 126 million Facebook users.
Since then, Facebook has vowed to be more aware of their influence in political events and has even constructed an entire “war room” for elections to directly intervene if they see signs of online interference.
