Facebook's summer 2020 internship program will be entirely virtual due to the pandemic

• Facebook's summer 2020 internship program will be run entirely virtually, the company said.
• The company made the decision because of the disruption caused by coronavirus.
• The hard-to-get internships can lead to full-time jobs at the tech giant.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook is running an entirely virtual internship program for the summer of 2020 due to the pandemic.

On Tuesday, the Silicon Valley-based social networking giant announced that it was going ahead with its internship program after weeks of uncertainty, but that it would take place online rather than at any of its physical offices.

In an emailed statement, VP of global recruiting Miranda Kalinowski told Business Insider: "Given the continuing health and safety issues posed by COVID-19, Facebook will be moving our Summer 2020 internship program to a virtual format. We look forward to welcoming our interns to Facebook."

Facebook's workforce has been working remotely for over a month, as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies around the globe to shift to remote work or pause operations. CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said that the vast majority employees wouldn't be back in offices until the end of May at the very earliest, and that Facebook is cancelling all major in-person events through June 2021.

Facebook offers one of the most prestigious internship programs in the tech industry, and the hard-to-get positions are often entry points to full-time work at the company. Google, which offers a similar program, also recently announced it was shifting to a virtual internship program. Some other companies, like Airbnb, have cancelled their summer intern programs.

"Given the continuing health and safety issues posed by COVID-19, we have decided to move our 2020 global internship program to a remote-only model this summer," Facebook wrote in a short blog post.

"Despite the challenges of running this program remotely, keeping our summer internship program is important both for the students for whom this is a pivotal learning experience, and for our company. Our internship program is a key part of our recruiting strategy."

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