Facebook is set to make a "big announcement" this week aimed at supporting news and journalism, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday.

Zuckerberg, appearing at a congressional hearing on its digital coin Libra, said during questioning that the leading social network is moving forward on a project "supporting high-quality journalism."

The comments appeared to refer to Facebook's planned "News Tab" which will be a separate section that includes articles from professional news organizations.

"Later in this week we have a big announcement coming up on news and journalism," he told lawmakers, describing this as "a new product that is supporting high quality journalism."

This will feature "high quality news, not just social content," according to Zuckerberg.

Facebook last week confirmed that it would include content from News Corp, publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

While the hearing was focusing on the digital currency plan, Zuckerberg faced an array of questions on other topics including data protection, deepfake videos and the spread of child pornography.

Facebook is expected to pay some of the news organizations that will contribute to the News Tab but has yet to disclose full details.

The company has said a human team will select relevant, reliable breaking and top news stories for the tab and the number of publishers involved will grow over time.

Compiled by Olalekan Adeleye

AFP