Facebook's annual F8 developer conference kicks off this morning, just about a month and a half since the Cambridge Analytica scandal completely redefined the conversation about data privacy and social media platforms.
That means that the main discourse of F8, which in previous years focused on new technologies such as virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence, will also have to rely on the hard conversations about responsibility and accountability that have shaped the biggest crisis to date. The whole controversy may even have postponed the company's plans to reveal its rumored intelligent loudspeaker, internally known as Portal, on F8 amid fears of excess Facebook and the concern of having the company listening inside the homes of consumers .
Of course, there will be news completely unrelated to Cambridge Analytica. Facebook is expected to talk more about its plans for virtual reality hardware in Oculus. We will hear more about the company's push towards AR to face Google and Snapchat from the first time its smart camera platform debuted on last year's F8. We will also hear more about the secret division Building 8 of the company, which this time a year ago announced that it was working on brain-computer interfaces. The former DARPA director, Regina Dugan, has left her position as director of building 8, so we are anxious to know how those more extravagant projects will come in their absence. There is a keynote address on the second day that takes place at 1 p. M. ET / 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday, May 2, and it's likely when we hear more about Building 8 developments.
But the Cambridge Analytica situation has forced Facebook to make radical changes to its developer platform, which makes a conference of developers like F8 is especially interesting to know how the company plans to move forward with its platform and attract application makers to create products on top of their core service. Facebook has restricted or closed many high-profile APIs and restricted developers' access to user data in a variety of ways, in the hope of avoiding future data abuse situations. Developers who spoke with The Verge in recent weeks said the changes have overshadowed F8 and whether Facebook can really attract developers back to its platform.
So, what has usually been a fairly quiet, developer-centered issue, has become another test of fire for handling the Facebook data privacy scandal. Naturally, everyone's eyes will be on CEO Mark Zuckerberg and how he plans to tackle the elephant in the room when he takes the stage for today's inaugural presentation. If you are interested in live tuning and continue with coverage of The Verge see below the best ways to do it.
How to continue
Start time: San Francisco: 10AM / New York: 1PM / London: 6PM / Berlin: 7PM / Moscow: 8PM / New Delhi: 10:30 PM / Beijing: 12:30 AM (May 2) / Tokyo: 2AM (May 2) / Sydney: 3AM (May 2)
Live broadcast: Facebook will broadcast live the main note on its dedicated F8 website and also on Facebook Live here.
Live Tweeting: Follow @Verge on Twitter for the latest headlines and news as they emerge.