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By 11 April 2018 | Categories: news

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Yesterday Mark Zuckerberg's feet were held to the fire, as the US Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees questioned the social media platform founder about the company's involvement in the recent Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. While there were several talking points from the testimony, it was what was not said by Zuckerberg that proved equally as interesting. 

To that end, when questioned about Facebook's role in the Senate Republican High Tech Task Force back in 2010, Senator Orrin Hatch noted that Zuckerberg said Facebook would always be free at the time, and whether that is still his intention now?

"There will always be a version of Facebook that is free. It is our mission to try to help connect everyone around the world and bring the world closer together," Zuckerberg answered. "In order to do that, we believe we need to deliver a service that everyone can afford," he added.  

What is most telling in his response is the use of the word 'version'. Reading between the lines, one might infer that there could one day be a version of Facebook that will be paid. Much like YouTube Red then, the paid subscription version of Facebook could allow users to opt-out of any data collection or advertising for a price. 

Whether or not such a version of the platform becomes reality though, remains to be seen, but Zuckerberg's words are certainly up for interpretation.

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