South By Southwest 2020 may become the next high-profile casualty of the coronavirus pandemic on people's event calendars as more companies say they're backing out of the event which is supposed to kick off next week.

A petition went up on Sunday, now signed by over 35,000 people, calling for this year's SXSW to be canceled. "I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of people who will be traveling to [Austin] in march for the SXSW festival," writes petition writer Shayla Lee. "I believe that having an event like this is irresponsible amid an outbreak." And the Austin American-Statesman reports today on the growing list of companies that have officially backed out of the event, including Facebook, Intel, Mashable, and Vevo — and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has backed out of a speaking engagement at South By as part of the company's policy to cancel all "non-critical travel."

Event organizers say that SXSW is still on, and as of Monday they tell the Statesman that cancellations are on par or down compared to previous years. That could always change in the coming days, but for now they say in a statement, "SXSW is working closely on a daily basis with local, state, and federal agencies to plan for a safe event," and that is because "no health departments in the state have requested the cancellation of any gatherings as the current risk of person-to-person spread in their jurisdictions remains low."

There are also the issues of a) a horrible PR nightmare if multiple people become sick and symptomatic while attending the festival, officially brining the virus to Texas via Austin; and b) the potential legal exposure for organizers if such a thing were to occur. Says one attorney who represented a woman who was injured at the festival in 2015 and received a settlement, "I promise the organizers are thinking long and hard about their legal exposure if a #Coronavirus hits the festival hard."

SXSW is currently set to run from March 13 to March 22 — but who from the Bay Area is still planning to go? Apparently Hillary Clinton still is!

For what it's worth, the Twitter chatter is leaning toward this cancellation being imminent.

With over 1.5 billion users, Facebook is a teeming digital place. And so it is perhaps unsurprising that it teems with posts that piss other users off. This fact, which likely comports with every single user's individual experience, was highlighted last weekend when Facebook's head of policy management, Monika Bickert, confirmed the social network receives over a million reports of "violations" from its users every day. So reports CNN Money, which noted Bickert explained that despite the sheer volume of complaints, she believes it's vital to have a human person reviewing them.

"When it comes to hate speech, it's so contextual," said Bickert. "We think it's really important for people to be making that decision."

Which, for sure, as not everything is as black and white as nipples, drag queens not wanting to use their real names, and a naked Donald Trump.

The discussion took place at a SXSW panel focused on online harassment. Titled the Online Harassment Summit, the daylong March 12 event was a scrambled damage-control response by the for-profit organization after it was widely condemned for canceling two sessions focusing on online harassment because of — you guessed it — harassment.

"[In] the seven days since announcing these two sessions, SXSW has received numerous threats of on-site violence related to this programming," SXSW Interactive Director Hugh Forrest wrote in a widely criticized explanation last October for the initial decision to cancel the sessions. "Maintaining civil and respectful dialogue within the big tent is more important than any particular session."

Facebook's Bickert further noted that the company is working to create a space that is respective of free speech, and yet the platform must obviously remain appealing to advertisers.

"You can criticize institutions, religions, and you can engage in robust political conversation," she explained. "But what you can't do is cross the line into attacking a person or a group of people based on a particular characteristic."

This topic, especially where it relates to photos being flagged by users for removal, was taken up by the (very excellent) podcast Radiolab a year ago, and Facebook engineers there discussed the ways in which they learned how to direct users to deal directly with friends who posted photos they didn't like — rather than telling the company's over-taxed moderators to deal with it for them.

The number of flagged violations has been "steadily increasing" according to Bickert, and will likely continue to do so now that users can flag content from all devices. And just like the rest of the internet, Facebook is likely to remain a contentions, ALL CAPS-FILLED place for a long time to come.

Related: Facebook's New Rules Include Bans On Nipples, Revenge Porn, And Descriptions of Sex Acts

Thennnnn I was given the wrong ID! From now on my name is Tamir & I work for Time Warner Inc #SXSW2016 pic.twitter.com/TE3jJR16P6

— Ibtihaj Muhammad (@IbtihajMuhammad) March 12, 2016

Another controversy for the corporate hipster branding festival SXSW, now underway in Austin, TX through Sunday, March 20. After canceling an online harassment panel because of online harassment and drawing conservative ire over the scheduling of President Obama, the festival faces another cycle of bad press for asking a Muslim panelist to remove her hijab headscarf in order to get her conference badge. Ibtihaj Muhammad, described by the NY Daily News as a “Muslim-American fencing powerhouse”, appeared on a panel discussion Saturday. But her check-in brouhaha demanding the removal of hijab is attracting the lion’s share of media attention.

The SXSW festival quickly apologized and blamed it all on an overzealous volunteer. “It is not our policy that a hijab or any religious head covering be removed in order to pick up a SXSW badge," organizers said in a statement. "This was one volunteer who made an insensitive request and that person has been removed for the duration of the event. We are embarrassed by this and have apologized to Ibtihaj in person, and sincerely regret this incident.”

With the hijab thing now ostensibly settled, the SXSW festival continues for the rest of this week and has numerous San Francisco connections. In addition to the multiple local startups attempting to garner attention at the fest, Google will demo some self-driving cars throughout the fest, and several Bay Area musical artists are scheduled to perform. But for all of it’s alleged coolness, SXSW isn’t that cool if your last name is “Muhammad”.

Related: Watch Kobayashi Eat 13 Grilled Cheeses In 1 Minute at SXSW

Win a trip to everyone's favorite tech festival. This March, one lucky winner and a friend will have the opportunity to attend the festival-that-cannot-be-named in style, get VIP access to the coolest parties, and meet some of the top thought leaders in the tech world. The prize package includes:

• Round-trip airfare to Austin, TX this March 13 - March 17
• Four nights of accommodations in downtown Austin, TX and a boozy gift bag from Drizly to greet you
• Two Festival Badges
• VIP access to the third annual Lunar Kaleidoscope party on 3/14, hosted by General Assembly & Splash
• Two VIP passes to the full-day ff Massive Party on 15 March
• Coffee meetings with a group of hand-picked startup founders and industry influencers
• Exclusive seats at a private dinner with some of the most influential entrepreneurs from NYC, SF, & LA
• $1,000 Uber credit to ride in style around the city

Enter now for your chance to win!

Want to follow what's going on at South by Southwest? Then, please, head over to Austinist, our sister site smack-dab in the center all the action at the annual music and technology conference.

Photos by Yoni Mekuria and Kim Zylker of epicsauce

We are back and 40% recovered from the land of Lonestars, queso dip, free schwag and live music. The 2010 SXSW absolutely blew us away, with bands continuously playing at every bar, storefront and parking lot from noon to sunrise each day -- if you have not made the annual trek down to Austin, we strongly encourage you to take part in the debauchery next year.

Week highlights included Tanlines, Liars, Lemonade, Memory Tapes, Neon Indian, Beach Fossils, Japandroids, Teengirl Fantasy, Afghan Raiders and much more. And on the local front, Man/Miracle, Wallpaper, Ty Segall, Tempo No Tempo, Weekend and Young Prisms all wowed us and managed to garner quite a bit of buzz throughout the week, converting many new fans along the way. We will have more videos and photos from the festival at epicsauce.com throughout the coming weeks, but here our a handful of our favorites.

Ordinarily at this time Ted's gearing up for South by Southwest, where he would be grinning from ear to ear, seeing the bands you'll be listening to next year, tracking down people for yet another celebrity station ID, and radiating joy wherever he goes. However, this year he might not make it - the station is what Ted does, and it can't pay his way this time around. Fans of the station have started a drive to Send Ted to SXSW - and we here at SFist are happy to do our part to help. If you can, click over to his pad and flip him what you can. Ted has given as much as anyone to San Francisco music; it would be nice if he got a little back.

Wednesday night is when things get real exciting. Division Day, who released their debut album, Beartrap Island on Eenie Meenie Records (Scissors for Lefty, Wallpaper, Great Northern) at the end of last year is back in San Francisco. We consistently have loved everything that Eenie Meenie Records has put out, including Division Day. They will be supported by A-Sides, an indie-rock band from Philadelphia. It should be a great show!

The Hands (pictured to the right) are a straight-up rock band from Seattle, Washington. We wanted to recommend The Hands, playing over at Kimo's in Nob Hill on Friday night, but when we googled Kimo's (to find out more information about the venue), we realized that Kimo's didn't even have a website. This is 2008, right? We checked out reviews on yelp and boy we're we surprised. Kimo's was reviewed as being "dirty and disgusting" with the "worst sound ever." Ouch. There weren't too many favorable reviews posted. (Kimo's rating is a crappy two out of five stars.) For a band who is playing SXSW later this month, we're a bit surprised they aren't playing Bottom of the Hill or Slim's. We're wondering, is it really worth going to Kimo's? From what we've read, we're a bit worried. What do you think?

For full listings, take the jump...

What is the best thing about Indie Fest?
Having filmgoers get to meet filmmakers and talk movies.

What are some standout movies this year?
One of my personal favorites is POP SKULL, this weird experimental horror/drug movie. DRIVING TO ZIGZIGLAND is also really good, funny, touching, interesting take on what’s going on in the middle east by telling the story of a Palestinian guy in Hollywood trying to get into movies.

What are your favorite movie festivals?
Chicago Underground, SXSW, Slamdance, Fantasia

What makes a festival good?
Good films, curious, open minded audiences, good parties-the place filmmakers get to meet film goers!

Any tips for festival attenders?
Come early, parking/muni delays happy all the time, as we know, and are schedule is pretty tight. Stick around after the film for the QAs. They can be really interesting. Buy lots of popcorn, the Roxie could use the money!

Any new festivals in the works?
Welllll, I'd be lying if I said no. But nothing firm enough to say out loud.

How many movies will you see at it this year?
35 features, about 60 shorts