Mark Zuckerberg just hinted that Facebook could offer a paid version one day (FB)

Mark Zuckerberg just suggested that Facebook might one day offer a paid, premium version of its social network.

During Zuckerberg's testimony on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch asked whether Facebook would always be free.

"Yes," Zuckerberg said, "there will always be a version of Facebook that is free."

The reason that's important is that Zuckerberg said a version of Facebook would always be free.

That's a marked difference from the company's insistence that Facebook will always be free, period. You can see that on Facebook's front page, which tells people who sign up that "it's free and always will be."

If you read between the lines of Zuckerberg's comment, there's a suggestion Facebook is leaving itself open to offering a paid version, perhaps without ads, at some point down the road. That could help Facebook ease some of the concerns about its use of users' data for ad targeting.

Zuckerberg provided a bit more detail when the topic came up again during Tuesday's 5-hour hearing.

More on Zuckerbergs blockbuster hearing:

Business Insider's live blog of the entire hearing
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Zuckerberg just renounced a core piece of Silicon Valley wisdom — and it could come back to bite Facebook
Zuckerberg will not be under oath during his Senate hearing, but will still have a 'legal obligation to testify truthfully'