Facebook has received bomb threats at one of their buildings. The company confirmed that the bomb threat came from their Menlo Park campus. Facebook sent an email confirming all their employees are safe.
Facebook Spokesperson, Genevieve Grdina, said,
“Late this afternoon, we received a bomb threat and took swift action to evacuate several buildings at our Menlo Park campus. We take the safety and security of our people at Facebook extremely seriously and are glad that everyone is safe. We are working closely with local authorities to investigate this threat and further monitor the situation. ”
Some of the buildings at Facebook-owned Menlo Park were evacuated a few hours ago due to the bomb threat. Menlo Park authorities issued an alert at 5 PM local time, asking people to stay clear from block 200 of Jefferson Park.
Menlo Park Police Department confirmed they were conducting an investigation on the bomb threat. The Police Department confirmed this via their Twitter account. New York Police Department’s Crimestoppers unit got the warning about the bomb threat first, which forwarded the information to local authorities.
The Police Department tweeted, “Update to the bomb threat at 200 Jefferson Drive: The building has been evacuated, and the bomb unit is on the scene.”
Police respond to bomb threat; No suspicious package or device found https://t.co/uxIxHYbmyX
— Menlo Park PD (@MenloParkPD) December 12, 2018
San Mateo County allied agencies bomb units are still searching the building, and the search is still in progress. Till now, no device or suspicious package has been found. Law enforcement officers did not give out any other details regarding the threat.
Sadly this is the second time a bomb threat has been received in just a matter of days. A bomb threat forced CNN employees to evacuate their New York office. An “unsubstantiated telephone threat” came through to the Time Warner Center, according to NBC New York. The caller said there were five bombs in CNN’s New York office.
After a thorough investigation by the law enforcement agencies, the building was deemed safe. The building was reopened soon afterward. It wasn’t clear if the threat was made specifically to CNN, as there are other offices operating in the building as well.
It’s still too early to call why or who made the Facebook bomb threat. There are a lot of parties that could benefit from terrorizing Facebook. There are Russians, Cambridge Analytica or it could even be a disgruntled user.
It could also be a fed up supporter of either of the two parties, who got upset because of some newly implemented policy or headline that they read on the site. It is still too early to call. As of yet, no bomb has been found.
The story is still developing, and we will keep you updated.
Fazeel Ashraf
