In July, the internet world turned its attention towards Area 51, the classified military base in Las Vegas, Nevada. In this trend, a Facebook event was created to raid Area 51. The raid became an instant hit, and over 2 million Facebook users signed up.
Even late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert talked about the show. Even the US Air Force issued a warning against raiding the facility. But now, on August 3rd, Facebook deleted the event page.
Matthew Roberts, the event creator, posted a screenshot of the notification. It said that the event violated Facebook’s community standards. Roberts even created a sister event which had 15,000 people signed up before being taken down for no apparent reason.
It all started with a joke, but Robert is now planning an actual Area 51 festival in Rachel, Nevada on 20th September. He created this event and was taken down by Facebook again with no clear reason. Robert is furious with Facebook and expects around 20k people to attend the festival.
The original Facebook event had a brief description: “We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry,” the description also featured Naruto, A central character in an anime. This created a lot of memes which you can see on Twitter and Reddit.
What is Area 51?
Area 51 is a highly classified zone which is located in Las Vegas, Nevada and is related to the famed Edwards Air Force Base. No one can really say for sure what happens at the base and ever since has been a breeding ground for alien conspiracies.
The located received its name in 1951 when an alleged Roswell UFO was brought to the base. Recently as 2013, CIA declassified a 355-page report which features the birth of Area 51 and the U-2 spy planes developed and tested there.
