You can hide someone's activity on Facebook by unfollowing them, adding them to your Restricted list, or managing your general privacy settings.
Under the “news feed” or “story” option, you should see choices to share the post with all Facebook users, your entire friends list, or friends except for a particular individual or group. Click “friends except” to bring up a list of possible exclusions and start choosing who you want to hide your post from.
Facebook offers several options. You can hide someone's posts or unfollow that person, which means you remain "friends" but no longer see their posts on your News Feed. There's also the option to snooze someone's posts for 30 days. Or block someone so they can't see your posts or communicate with you.
If you don't see Active dot next to someone else's profile picture, it means they have turned off Active Status in their settings.
You can only control who can see your friends list on your profile. Your friends also control who can see their friendships on their own profiles. For example, if you set your friends list to Only Me, only you'll be able to see your full friends list on your profile.
Essentially, soft blocking resets the relationship, making you online strangers again. It works on most platforms with a follow system, like Instagram, Twitter (X), Facebook, and Tumblr.
Go to a friend's profile. If you can only see public posts, but could previously see friends-only posts, you may have been restricted. Ask a mutual friend if they can see their friends-only posts. If a mutual friend can see friends-only posts on the person's profile but you can't, you may be restricted.
Can I turn off Active Status for only one person? No, it is an all-or-nothing setting. If you want to hide your activity from a specific person, the best option is to restrict or block them.
Messenger does not provide a “muted” flag to other users — meaning you won't see a label that says “you were muted.” Read receipts (delivered/read) and active statuses are the only technical clues, but they are imperfect: users can disable read receipts, turn off active status, or use the app in ways that hide their ...
If you're using the Facebook app, you can't stop individual users from seeing if you're online or offline. You'll have to turn your active status off for everyone. This will turn off your active status in the Facebook app and Messenger app.
For regular users browsing posts, you might not see comments because the post owner has hidden specific comments, your personal comment filter settings are limiting what you see, or comments contain words you've muted or filtered.
You can show that you're active or recently active by turning on your Active Status. If you turn off your Active Status in one app, such as Messenger, you might still appear active in a different app, such as Facebook. To hide your Active Status, turn it off in both Messenger and Facebook.
Muting, hiding or restricting can provide good alternatives to blocking because abusers do not know that they've been muted, hidden, or restricted. Ultimately, only you can decide what feels right for you.
The Power of Control
Blocking someone allows a person to regain control over their interactions and creates a safe space free from unwanted engagement. According to psychological research, control is a basic human need. People derive a sense of security when they can dictate the terms of their digital interactions.
We won't tell them that you restricted them. They won't be able to see when you're online or if you've read their messages.
No, people can't see if you look at their profile.
Some users suggest that you'll appear on a user's "People you may know" friend suggestion if you look at a person's profile. Others suggest it only appears if you have your location services on and your devices appear online nearby one another.
The short answer is no—Facebook does not notify anyone when you screenshot a post. This includes: Posts on your feed (public or private)