It's Back: Facebook Resurrects "Storm Area 51" Event

Facebook says it was all a big mistake.

It's Back

After being removed by Facebook, the event called "Storm Area 51" has been resurrected. But no advanced extraterrestrial technology was behind the move: according to a spokesperson for Facebook, the event was removed by "mistake."

The BBC reports that the founder of the group, Mathew Roberts, received a message on Saturday claiming that his tongue-in-cheek event broke Facebook's community standards — but that the social giant has now restored the group.

Do It Live

Roberts' event called for an army of memelords and alien fanatics to storm the Air Force base in the Nevada desert. The group's description: "Let’s see them aliens."

Prior to being removed earlier this week, the tongue-in-cheek event convinced more than 2 million Facebook users to join the attack.

Cash Grab

Area 51 has long been the subject of wild speculation — and plenty of memes as well. But in reality, the Air Force base has hosted hundreds of nuclear weapons tests and has served as testing grounds for a range of new stealth aircraft.

In the end, though, everything online eventually gets monetized. Case in point: you can now buy official Storm Area 51 merchandise on a website linked in the event's description.

READ MORE: Facebook briefly removes Area 51 event 'by accident' [BBC]

More on the event: Facebook Removes “Storm Area 51” Event