The chief executive and co-founder of Facebook has denied claims made by a whistleblower that the company puts profits before tackling hate speech.

Over the weekend Frances Haugen, who worked as a product manager on the civic misinformation team at Facebook, revealed her identity as the person who leaked documents to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in an interview with CBS programme 60 minutes.

“Its own research is showing that content that is hateful, that is divisive, that is polarising, it’s easier to inspire people to anger than it is to other emotions,” she told the programme on Sunday. “Facebook has realised that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they’ll click on less ads, they’ll make less money.”

But Mark Zuckerberg hit back at the allegation, saying that the idea that the company prioritises profit over safety and well-being is “just not true.”

“We care deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health. It's difficult to see coverage that misrepresents our work and our motives,” he said in a post on Facebook, which was originally shared with employees. “At the most basic level, I think most of us just don't recognise the false picture of the company that is being painted.”

The chief exec argued that the claims do not make sense, asking why if the company wanted to ignore research it had decided to create an “industry-leading research programme” to understand the issues.

“ If we didn't care about fighting harmful content, then why would we employ so many more people dedicated to this than any other company in our space -- even ones larger than us?” he added. “If we wanted to hide our results, why would we have established an industry-leading standard for transparency and reporting on what we're doing? And if social media were as responsible for polarising society as some people claim, then why are we seeing polarisation increase in the US while it stays flat or declines in many countries with just as heavy use of social media around the world?”

The comments follow the publication of a number of articles by the WSJ about the impact of Facebook platforms like Instagram on the mental health of young people.

On Wednesday, the newspaper released the leaked internal documents, which showed that Instagram-owner Facebook is aware that the platform is “toxic for teenage girls.”

The research found that appearance-based social comparison on Instagram is common, impacting a third of people, and nearly half of teen girls.

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