April Fools’ Day is almost here, but it is not a great time to make pranks as the world is gripped with the novel coronavirus outbreak. Every year, the internet is filled with jokes that usually involves just about everything. We don’t know about you, but Google is sitting out April Fools’ Day 2020. Yes, the search engine giant won’t participate in this annual tradition this time due to COVID-19, which continues to be a serious threat to everyone globally. An internal email obtained by Business Insider, Google confirmed that it would take the year off from the tradition in respect of everyone fighting with the coronavirus pandemic. April Fools’ Day Worldwide Customs: Brazil, France and Other Countries’ Traditional Way of Celebrating April 1 Will Totally Surprise You!

In the email, Google detailed its decision to cancel the event this year. The company even highlighted that it has already stopped centralising April Fools’ pranks and requested other teams to take down their projects too. Google will “take the year off from that tradition out of respect for all those fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. Our highest goal right now is to be helpful to people, so let’s save the jokes for next April, which will undoubtedly be a whole lot brighter than this one. We’ve already stopped any centralized April Fool’s efforts but realize there may be smaller projects within teams that we don’t know about,” reads the email obtained by Business Insider. “Please suss out those efforts and make sure your teams pause on any jokes they may have planned — internally or externally,” the mail read further.

Every year, Google comes up with unique ideas to prank its users to mark April Fools’ Day. But this year’s decision to cancel the event seems wise considering the present global situation. With the seriousness of the health crisis gripping the world, dedicating a day to mislead people, adding misinforming features may not be a great idea this year. We hope other companies and organisations follow the same this year and adjust their April Fools’ Day 2020 plans accordingly.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 28, 2020 05:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).