Description[]
Storm Area 51, also simply known as Area 51, was a 2019 satirical Facebook event that calls for an assembly of a flash mob to infiltrate the top-secret American military airbase in Lincoln County, Nevada, scheduled to commence at 3:00 a.m. on September 20th, 2019.
Developments[]
Viral Breakout[]
According to Matty Roberts, a 20-year-old California resident and Bakersfield College student who co-created the event, the Facebook page saw little traction during the first 72 hours of listing and then suddenly took off. By July 8th, more than 120,000 Facebook users had RSVPd for the event, and by July 10th, the list of attendees had nearly doubled to 222,891.
Tactical Discussions[]
Over the following two weeks, "attendees" of the group made shitposts and satirical plans to storm the base. On July 5th, user Jackson Barnes made a satirical plan to storm the base that gained over 10,000 reactions. The plan is stated below:
"Ok guys, i feel like we need to formulate a game plan, Ive put together this easy to follow diagram here for a proposed plan.
The basic idea is that the Kyles form the front line, if we feed them enough psilocybin and monster energy and say that anyone in camouflage is their step dad, and the entire base is made of drywall then they will go berserk and become an impenetrable wall.
Then the Rock Throwers will throw pebbles at the inevitable resistance (we don't want to hurt them, we just want to annoy them enough to not shoot the Kyles as often). While this is all happening, the two Naruto runner battalions will run full speed around the north and south flank, and shadow clone jutsu, effectively tripling our numbers, and overwhelm the base (red circle).
P.S. Hello US government, this is a joke, and I do not actually intend to go ahead with this plan. I just thought it would be funny and get me some thumbsy uppies on the internet. I'm not responsible if people decide to actually storm area 51."
Media Coverage[]
The plan was covered by Mysterious Universe n July 5th, noting that the last time someone attempted to storm Area 51, the intruder was shot by the police. It was also covered by Metro UK. The planned "raid" was also covered by r/OutOfTheLoop, gaining over 7,400 points. A number of other news publications also picked up the story on July 9th and 10th, including Live Science, The Daily Mail, and Newsweek, with the highlight of their articles being the high number of those that clicked Going to the event, but without acknowledging the joke elements of the event post.
