Star Wars actor Mark Hamill has deleted his Facebook account, lambasting the company’s political ads policy.

In a tweet, the celebrity accused the firm’s chief Mark Zuckerberg of having valued profit over truthfulness.

It followed its decision to let politicians run adverts that contain lies on the social network.

The firm has said that it does not believe decisions about which political ads run should be left to private companies.

Facebook declined to comment in reaction to Mr Hamill’s post, but defended its policy in a post on Thursday.

“In the absence of regulation, Facebook and other companies are left to design their own policies,” wrote Facebook’s director of product management, Rob Leathern.

“We have based ours on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all, and that what they say should be scrutinised and debated in public.”

Other US tech firms have, however, opted to be more restrictive about what they allow.

One social media analyst said controversy over the matter was unlikely to fade soon.

“Facebook is bucking the trend in the run-up to the US elections later this year,” Alex Krasodomski-Jones, from the UK-based think tank Demos, told the BBC.

“The chorus of critical voices – from public figures and politicians – will grow louder as US presidential candidates ramp up their campaign spending.”

Basic checks

Mr Hamill’s criticism came days after Facebook’s former security chief voiced his own disapproval about the the social network’s handling of the matter.

Alex Stamos said he was “disappointed” that his ex-employer was not even policing whether politicians were deliberately misrepresenting what their rivals were saying.

He suggested doing do would be both “non-partisan and helpful”.

“I would limit… fact-checking to claims about opponents,” he explained.

“‘Mexico will pay for the wall’ is up to voters to judge, but a falsifiable claim like ‘my opponent is going to be arrested’ should be safer to judge.”