How to keep someone from seeing your facebook posts

(Originally published 2013, updated November 2019).

A relative of mine asked me, “What can I do if I don’t want to see someone’s updates on Facebook, but I’d rather not unfriend or block them?”

Here’s how to make it seem like you have unfriended a person.  It’s a two-step process.  First, you will prevent their updates from showing up on your news feed (the page you see when you first log into Facebook). Then, you can prevent them from seeing your updates.

There are two ways to accomplish this:

1. The easiest way is to add someone to your Acquaintances (Read instruction here for using the Acquaintances list for distancing yourself from a FB friend)
2. The other method is to un-follow a person and then add them to your Restricted Read on if you’d like to try this method.

Of course you could always go ahead and un-friend someone – they will not be notified.  But it could create an awkward situation, depending on the person and your relationship.  So it’s nice to have this option.

Prevent a friend’s updates from showing up on your Facebook Feed:

Desktop:

1. Go to your friend’s timeline page by clicking on their name.  The “Following” button will be checked, as shown, meaning that you currently follow the person (i.e. you see their updates on your News Feed).  Click the “Unfollow” option to unfollow them.

2.  The button will change to the word “Follow”.

Mobile:

1.  In the Facebook app, first go to the friend’s timeline.  Click the small “Friends” button and you’ll see the following choices – Following, Block, and Friends.  Click “Friends”.

2. You’ll now have the choices to Unfriend, Take a Break, Unfollow, or Edit Friends list.  Click “Unfollow”.

You should no longer see this friend’s updates on your News Feed.  You can still see their updates if you visit their profile/timeline page.

Now that you have limited what you’ll see about this person, go ahead and limit what they’ll see about you.

Add your friend to your “Restricted” list to prevent them from seeing what you share

Facebook provides a few built-in “Lists” for categorizing your friends.  You can use these lists to control who you share with.  One of the lists is called “Restricted”.  When you add someone to your “Restricted” list they will only be able to see your “Public” content or posts of yours that you tag them in”.  It works like this:

Desktop:

1. Hover over the Friends button again and this time choose “Add to another list”.

2. Select “Restricted”.

3. If this person was in another list, select that list to un-check and remove them from the list.

Mobile:

1. Click on the “Friends” button again.  Choose Friends, and then “Edit Friend Lists” (you might not see this, in which case just continue).

2.  You’ll see some possible lists – I have a few custom lists, your screen might look a bit different.  Scroll down and select “Restricted”.

3. If this person was in another list, select that list to un-check and remove them from the list.

Is this fool-proof?

No.  There are a few other settings that could expose some of your information to the friend you are trying to ditch.

For example, if you have a mutual friend in common, and that mutual friend tags you both, then your friend might see that you’ve been tagged.

Or, if you and your “frenemy” both follow a public page on Facebook like…uh…good example here….okay let’s say you both follow that Star Trek guy George Takei, and you click “Like” on George’s funny picture, then your friend could potentially see that you’ve liked it.  That’s because she is also a fan of George and George’s post are available to “Everyone”.

So while there is no guarantee of total erasure of this person from your Facebook life, this is about as close as you can come to unfriending or blocking a person.

[Please note  – I have closed comments on this article; unfortunately this page is receiving a large number of spam comments.  And I am not able to personally troubleshoot each and every situation! Please take a look at the existing comments and replies to date, as your question might be answered here.  You can also take a look at other Facebook tips, or search the Facebook help page.]