blockity block

May 16, 2015 8:03 PM

Is there a way to block someone who has already blocked you?

I used to be friends with someone on Facebook. I didn't want to see their content, so I removed them from my newsfeed by "unfollowing" them. That worked well for me. Last week, they blocked me. In concept, that's fine, since I don't want to see any contact related to them. However, this now means that I don't have the ability to remove content that friends post that they are tagged in. (I didn't have this before, but I'd like to have it now -- they're using Facebook a lot more than they had previously.) For example, if a mutual friend of ours posts a picture of herself with them, and tags them, I don't want it to show up for me. How can I remove content about them from my newsfeed? Can I block them?

posted by femmegrrr to Human Relations (9 answers total)

Click on the little padlock menu, go to your privacy settings. Click on blocking, and you can enter a name. That should work I think. (I can't test bc the couple people I know of who have blocked me were friends of friends, and I can't remember their names.)
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:10 PM on May 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

I really don't think there's any difference between A (e.g. your former friend) blocking B (e.g. you) and B blocking A. Once A blocks B, that's supposed to prevent A and B from having any interactions. I don't think it gives A any extra protection from B than B has from A.
posted by John Cohen at 8:32 PM on May 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

In your example, you won't see that photo because the other person is tagged in it. It will be as if that photo doesn't exist for you. One person can block, but the effect is mutual. If a mutual friend posts something with his or her name and doesn't tag them, you will be able to see that. But, for example, you could both be commenting on a mutual friend's status update and neither of you would have any idea.

I think the only way you can block someone who has blocked you is if they unblock you.
posted by bluedaisy at 11:09 PM on May 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

I blocked someone recently, and a mutual friend posted a giant picture of them. The name was grayed out and unclickable but the picture still showed up. I am still bothered by this.
posted by Threeve at 11:14 PM on May 16, 2015 [3 favorites]

Yeah, agreed with Threeve. I blocked a guy a couple of years ago, and he's recently resurfaced in my group of friends in the city I used to live in. Now I get to see pictures of him all the time, with everyone tagged, and there's his name, just grayed out and not a clickable link.

I just combed through FB's security settings, and I'm not seeing any additional settings beyond the block list that would filter out other people's posts that mentioned a blocked person.
posted by themissy at 5:48 AM on May 17, 2015

If another party has loose privacy controls on Facebook I think you are stuck seeing the blocked party when he is tagged in other photos you can see. Maybe there is a browser extension that will add the additional level of control you want?
posted by COD at 5:59 AM on May 17, 2015

F.B. Purity will filter by keyword - the other features are pretty excellent as well (can kill/hide nearly everything that is annoying about the site). Install for Firefox, Chrome.
posted by mireille at 8:03 AM on May 17, 2015

i verified that the instructions in the first post from feckless work for someone that's blocked you already.
posted by noloveforned at 12:37 PM on May 17, 2015

Social Fixer would allow you to create a filter to hide any mention of this person. It has a lot of other cool features too, like the ability to hide posts you've already read or sort your posts into various tabs by topics. I couldn't Facebook without it.
posted by QuakerMel at 1:03 PM on May 17, 2015