Mark Zuckerberg is giving Facebook employees the whole of Thanksgiving week off as a reward for working through 'unprecedented challenges'

• Mark Zuckerberg emailed Facebook staff on Wednesday telling them they'll get an extra three days off for Thanksgiving this year.
• The extra days will extend to workers outside of the US as well.
• Zuckerberg wrote that the days off were a reward for working through "unprecedented challenges" this year.

Facebook's employees are getting an unusually long break this Thanksgiving.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent an email to staff on Wednesday night that said they will get an extra three days off for Thanksgiving this year, CNBC reported.

Staff outside of the US will get the three days off as well, but don't necessarily have to take the extra holiday around Thanksgiving.

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Zuckerberg wrote that the extra time off was a reward for working through "unprecedented challenges" this year.

"The idea here is to give as many people as possible a break. I hope you can disconnect and take the time to rest and recharge before the final push of the year," he wrote.

Facebook has had to adapt to both the pandemic and the upcoming US presidential election. In May, the company publicly tore itself apart over its handling of a post from President Donald Trump about the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis.

Zuckerberg's email came the same day he testified before a Congressional hearing alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai about Section 230, the part of US law that protects tech companies from liability for user-generated content, and gives them broad authority to moderate their own platforms.

It is not clear from CNBC's report whether the email applies to Facebook's contracted workers. Facebook has roughly 15,000 contracted moderators reviewing flagged material on the site in the US alone, and the company has faced long-running complaints about how it treats them, compared to salaried workers.

Earlier in October, contracted moderators were told to return to the office, while full-time staff can work from home until July 2021.