The social media giant has long been chastised for its handling of online abuse.

On Tuesday, Facebook revealed for the first time the prevalence of bullying and harassment on its platform, claiming that such content was seen 14 to 15 times per 10,000 visits on the site in the third quarter. In its quarterly content moderation report, the company, which recently changed its name to Meta, also stated that bullying and harassing content was seen between 5 and 6 times per 10,000 views of content on Instagram.

Former employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen disclosed internal documents that included studies and talks regarding Instagram's effects on teen mental health and whether Facebook's platforms fuel divisions, bringing the social media behemoth back into the spotlight. The documents, according to Haugen, reveal that the corporation prioritized profits before user safety. Facebook refuted this assessment, claiming that the records were being exploited to create a "false picture."

The documents, which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal, have spurred calls for Facebook to be more transparent and have raised questions over whether metrics such as prevalence give the full picture of how the company handles abuses. 

Facebook said its bullying and harassment numbers only captured instances where the company did not need additional information, such as a report from a user, to decide if the content broke its rules.

They said that of the 9.2 million pieces of content the company removed from Facebook for breaking its bullying and harassment rules, it found 59.4% proactively.

"Bullying and harassment is a unique challenge and one of the most complex issues to address because context is critical," the company's global head of safety, Antigone Davis, and product management director Amit Bhattacharyya said in a blog post.