How to Block Words on Facebook

Tired of deleting spam, abuse, or off-topic comments on your Facebook content? Automating your moderation by blocking specific words is a simple and effective way to clean up your interactions and protect your community. This guide will show you exactly how to block unwanted words from your Facebook Page, in your Groups, and on your personal profile, giving you more control over your digital space.

Why Block Words on Facebook? More Than Just Spam Control

Setting up a blocked words list is more than just filtering out swear words - it's a strategic move that helps you manage your community and protect your brand around the clock. By telling Facebook which words and phrases to automatically hide, you can achieve several key goals without having to manually stand guard over your comments section 24/7.

• Protect Your Brand's Reputation: Automatically hide comments that mention competitors, contain misleading claims, or redirect your traffic to other websites. This keeps your comment sections clean, on-topic, and reflective of your brand's standards.
• Foster a Safer Community: Create a more welcoming environment by filtering out hate speech, bullying, slurs, and abusive language. A safer space encourages more positive and genuine interaction from your true followers.
• Boost Your Productivity: Manually deleting dozens of spam comments - from "DM me for info" to a sea of sales emojis - is a massive time sink. Automating this chore frees you up to focus on what matters: replying to real customers and creating great content.
• Improve Your Mental Well-being: Whether you're managing a brand or just your personal profile, constant exposure to negativity and harassment can be draining. Blocking problematic words shields you and your team from the worst of it, making social media management a more positive experience.

How to Block Words on a Facebook Page

For brand and business accounts, Facebook Pages offer the most robust moderation tools. The "Moderation Assist" feature acts as your personal automated moderator, hiding comments based on criteria you define. It’s the single most effective way to keep your page’s comments section clean.

Step-by-Step Guide for New Pages Experience

If your Page has been updated to Facebook's "New Pages Experience," follow these steps to set up your blocked keywords list:

1. Access Your Professional Dashboard: Navigate to your Facebook Page and click on an admin tool in the left toolbar called Professional Dashboard.
2. Find Moderation Assist: In the Professional Dashboard menu, scroll down to the "Your Tools" section and click on Moderation Assist.
3. Add Your Keyword Criteria: Inside Moderation Assist, look for the "Criteria for comments" section. Click the Add button on the right-hand side.
4. Choose the "Keywords in comment" Option: A pop-up will appear with several moderation options. Select Keywords in comment to open the keyword entry tool.
5. Build Your Block List: In the text box, start adding the words, phrases, numbers, and even emojis you want to block. You can add up to 10,000 unique entries.
   • Enter one word or phrase per line, or separate them with commas. For example: scam, fake, free trial, click my link.
   • The tool does partial matching. If you add the word "sale," it will also hide comments containing "presale" or "clearancesale." Keep this in mind to avoid accidentally hiding good comments.
   • Don't forget spammy emojis! Add common offenders like 💰, 👉, 👇, 🎯, and 🚀 to your list.
6. Save your changes: Once you're done, hit the blue Add to Moderation Assist button at the bottom. Your rule is now active!

Comments containing these keywords will now be automatically hidden. They aren't permanently deleted, so you can still review them in your Page's moderation activity log if you need to.

Building a Strategic Block List for Your Page

A great block list goes way beyond just the obvious bad words. Think strategically about what you want to filter out to protect your marketing efforts and community health.

• Competitor Names: Add the brand names of your direct and indirect competitors. This prevents other pages (or their fans) from promoting themselves in your comments section.
• Spammy Phrases: Go beyond single words. Add common spammy call-to-actions like "Check my profile," "DM for info," "Get yours now," and anything related to crypto or get-rich-quick schemes.
• Negative and Derogatory Terms: Include words frequently used for trolling, harassment, or spreading misinformation.
• Sensitive or Off-Topic Keywords: If you want to keep discussions focused, consider adding keywords related to politics, religion, or other divisive topics that are not relevant to your brand.
• Common Variations and Misspellings: Spammers try to bypass filters. Be sure to include common variations, such as fr33 for "free" or w!n for "win."

How to Block Words in a Facebook Group

Facebook Groups have equally powerful, if not more powerful, moderation tools. In Groups, you can use "Admin Assist" to set up keyword rules that not only hide comments but can also automatically decline posts before they even show up in the feed.

Setting Up Keywords in Admin Assist

Admin Assist lets you create a combination of rules to keep your group running smoothly. Here’s how to add keyword filters for both posts and comments:

1. Go to Admin Assist: As a group admin or moderator, navigate to your group. In the left-hand menu under "Admin Tools," click on Admin Assist.
2. Choose a Moderation Rule: You'll see options to create rules for incoming posts, published posts, and comments. Click the Add button for the scenario you want, for instance, under "Automatically decline incoming posts if..." or "Manage comments if..."
3. Select the Keyword Condition: A list of potential rules will appear. Choose either Post has specific keywords (for posts) or Comment has specific keywords (for comments).
4. Enter Your Blocked Words: Just like with a Page, enter the words, phrases, usernames, or hashtags you want to manage. Use commas or a new line for each entry.
5. Set the Action: For incoming posts, the action will be "Decline Post." For comments, you can choose to "Hide comment." A neat feature for Groups is you can also add a rule to "Turn off commenting" for posts that start using heated keywords.

This is especially handy for groups focused on specific hobbies or support themes, as it helps keep conversations focused and prevents spammers from using the group as a billboard.

How to "Block" Words on Your Personal Facebook Profile

While personal profiles don't have a "Moderation Assist" feature like Pages do, Facebook does give you a way to hide comments containing specific words. The process is straightforward, though slightly less powerful than the Page and Group tools.

Using Your Profile's Hiding Feature

This feature allows you to create a custom list of words that will automatically hide comments from your profile's posts.

1. Go to Your Settings: Click on your profile picture in the top right corner of Facebook and select Settings & Privacy, then Settings.
2. Navigate to Profile and Tagging: In the left-hand settings menu, click on Profile and Tagging.
3. Find the Word Filter: Look for the setting labeled Hide comments containing certain words from your profile. Click on it.
4. Add Your Word List: Under "Add words or phrases," start typing your list. You can also add variations of those words, acronyms, or emojis. As you add terms, Facebook may even suggest related words to include.
5. Save Your List: When you're finished, click Save.

This feature works alongside Facebook’s built-in profanity filter. Think of the profanity filter as a broad net managed by Facebook, while your custom list gives you precise control to catch the specific terms you personally want to avoid.

Best Practices for Your Blocked Word List

A block list is not a "set it and forget it" tool. For the best results, you need to manage it thoughtfully.

Review and Update Your List Regularly

Language evolves, and so do spammers. Make it a habit to review your blocked word list every few months. Look for new slang, new spam tactics, or any words that are accidentally blocking legitimate conversations. A quick audit after a big campaign or a period of high engagement is always a good idea.

Avoid Being Overly Aggressive

Be careful not to block words that could appear in genuine customer questions or positive comments. For example, blocking the word "problem" might hide a comment from a customer asking for help with a "problem" they're having with your product. Blocking a general term like "help" is even riskier. Context is everything, so start with the most obvious and problematic words first.

Think About Intent

The system works by matching characters, not intent. This means a word you block will be hidden everywhere it appears. If you block "book," comments talking about a "Facebook group" or an "e-book" will be hidden. Add more specific phrases like "book my appointment" if that's closer to what you're trying to prevent.

Listen to Your Community

If your community managers still spend a lot of time deleting certain types of comments, that's your cue to update the block list. Ask your team what new spam trends they're seeing and get those keywords added to your automated filters.

Final Thoughts

Blocking words on your Facebook Page, Group, or profile is a powerful way to reduce manual moderation, protect your brand, and build a healthier community. By taking a few minutes to create and strategically manage your blocked list, you regain control over the conversations happening in your space.

But managing comments is just one part of the equation. We know that staying on top of inbound engagement across multiple platforms can quickly become overwhelming. That's precisely why we built our unified social inbox in Postbase - so we could see and reply to every comment and DM from all our accounts in one simple, organized feed instead of constantly switching between apps.