How to stop someone from seeing your posts without blocking them

Facebook is sensitive to the fact that users don't want the whole world to have access to all their personal information. With that in mind, the social networking site makes it easy to hide your information from other people. When you select "Friends" as a privacy setting, only those people with whom you are Facebook friends have access to the information. You can also hide posts and other information from certain people on your friend list.

1. Hide your wall post from a specific person by hovering your mouse over the post and clicking on the downward arrow that appears in the top right corner of the post. Choose "Custom" from the menu. Enter the name of the person you want to hide the post from in the "Hide this from" field; click on your friend's name when Facebook shows a line with her name and thumbnail. Alternatively, enter the name of a friend list. Enter the next name or list, if applicable, and click "Save Changes" when you're finished.

2. Hide all Facebook wall posts from certain people by default by clicking the "Account" link in the top right corner of your profile picture and then "Privacy Settings." Click on the button beneath "Custom" in the "Control Your Default Privacy" section. Enter the name of a friend or friend list in the "Hide this from" field. Click "Save Changes."

3. Stop certain people from seeing one of your profile information sections, such as "Music" or "Employer," by going to your profile page and clicking "Edit Profile" at the top of your profile. Click on the tab in the left column of the screen that represents the section you want to edit. Click the arrow next to a section and choose "Custom" from the menu. Enter the name of a friend or list in the "Hide this from" field and click "Save Changes."

Social media can be a hostile environment. When people get behind the keyboard, they feel empowered to say just about anything, because hey, it’s all online, right? Tap or click here to find out how to schedule tweets ahead of time.

If you encounter someone attacking your posts, you might want to stop them from seeing your content without further trouble. You could block them, but that might create an uncomfortable situation. And no one wants to lose followers.

Fortunately, Twitter has introduced a new feature that can save you awkwardness. If you want someone to stop seeing your tweets without blocking them, read on.

The new feature

After a round of beta testing, Twitter has finally unveiled a new feature that will help keep heads a little cooler online. Previously, if you wanted someone to no longer see your tweets, you’d have to block them. But then, of course, they would know that you blocked them.

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Now you can silently remove their ability to see your posts, so they can’t comment on them. And you don’t have to block them entirely. The feature is part of Twitter’s new focus to stop online harassment and encourage good community behavior on the platform.

How to remove a Twitter follower without blocking them

Not only is the new feature convenient, but it’s also user-friendly and can be done in just a few steps. Here’s how to take advantage of this helpful feature:

• Open Twitter on your desktop computer.
• Tap Profile in the list of options on the left side of the page.
• Select Followers.
• Find the user who you don’t want to see your Tweets.
• Click the three dots next to their name.
• Choose Remove This Follower.

You can repeat this action with multiple followers if needed. After you’ve completed the above steps, the selected users won’t be blocked but won’t see your posts any longer.

Important things to note

While this feature is a great option to minimize the drama in your life, it won’t stop them from seeing your public tweets. If they go to your page and actively look for them, they will have access. Only by blocking someone or making your account fully private will you keep your page entirely safe.

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Also, the feature is currently only available on web browsers and isn’t available on the app. This could be problematic as most users operate Twitter from their smartphones. The feature will likely be rolled out to apps soon, but in the meantime, you can log in through a web browser to get the job done.

By Andrea Ruiz

Updated September 09, 2022

i Catherine Falls Commercial/Moment/GettyImages

By default, the content you post on your Instagram account is publicly viewable by all users within the app. However, you can set your profile's privacy settings so that only approved users can view your photos and videos and other profile information, or you can block individual users from accessing your content. Each option has different considerations regarding how restricted your Instagram audience is.

Set Your Profile Privacy Settings

You can set your Instagram profile's privacy settings so that only the users you approve can see your pictures and videos. Users won't be able to find your profile in searches, and unapproved users won't be able to see your list of followed accounts or followers on your profile. When a user requests to follow you, the app displays the request in your followers list, and you must tap "Yes" or "No" to approve or reject the request. You'll still be able to send pictures to any individual account through Instagram Direct, regardless of whether you've approved the user as a follower, by tapping "Direct" in the Share options of the photo in the app and then selecting the user to whom you want to send the photo.

What Does Restrict Do On Instagram?

Restricting on Instagram is an alternative method to control what you see and what other people can do, as explained by Instagram. Restricting prevents the person from being able to see when you're online or whether you've read their messages, and means that any comments they make on your posts won't be visible to anyone apart from them, unless you click "See comment" to view it yourself or "Approve" to make the comment visible to others. This doesn't stop them from seeing your post, but it does effectively limit how they can interact, and prevents you from getting notifications from them.

Blocking on Instagram

You can block individual users from seeing your photos and videos and from finding your account on Instagram search if you don't want to set your entire profile to private. Instagram doesn't notify users when you block them. If the user follows you, your account remains on the user's following list, but your content immediately becomes inaccessible. Blocked users can't send you posts via Instagram Direct from within the app.

The main difference between Instagram restrict vs. block is that if you block someone, they can't see your posts or find your account at all. They won't be notified, but it will become obvious they're blocked if they specifically try to access content posted by you.

How to Block Users

As Instagram explains, to block an individual user from seeing your pictures and videos and finding you in Instagram searches, tap the compass icon in the main menu and type the account's username in the search field. Tap the settings icon, which has three horizontal dots on Android devices and a rectangle with an arrow on iOS devices. Select "Block User" to block the user. To unblock the user at a later date, follow the same process but select "Unblock User" in the final step.

Understand the Limitations of Blocking

When you block individual users, they'll still be able to view some of your content on Instagram. For example, if you have mutual followers or follow some of the same people, a blocked user will still be able to see your likes and your comments on the other users' photos. Blocked users can also still see your username on other users' following and followers lists. If a user you have blocked tags you in a post or comment, the notice is still displayed in your news feed.

Previous comments and likes of a blocked user on your photos don't disappear when you block the account; you must manually delete them. Additionally, if your profile privacy settings are otherwise set to public, all users can still see all your photos and videos by visiting your profile on the web, regardless of whether you've blocked them in the app.

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