Internet Trolls are a real problem. We wish they weren’t. I mean, why can’t people just be nice and coexist in harmony, right? Well, the sad truth is that there are certain people out there who thrive on bullying, trolling, and being obnoxious in the most inconvenient ways possible.
Fortunately, there are ways to block those people who are consistently abusive. Facebook page owners can take a few simple precautions that will limit the ability of someone to leave comments that are obscene or hateful. Taking these steps ahead of time, along with consistently blocking trolls, is good for many reasons.
1. You want your page to be a safe place for people to visit and share ideas
No one wants to hang out in an environment where hateful comments and rude remarks are being tossed around. Creating and maintaining a safe place on the internet is key to cultivating a community of people who love and support each other – and your business!
2. It encourages people to return to your page
People WANT to spend time where there is no threat of attack and where things are fun and interesting. They are much more likely to return to your page if they know it’s a safe place to be!
3. You want to keep your page professional and clean
Consistent cursing and offensive comments may negatively impact your brand and your business. Maintaining a level of professionalism that doesn’t tolerate vulgar behavior and bullying shows that your brand is both positive and caring.
How to BLOCK Profanity on Your Facebook Page
Keeping your page clean of profanity, offensive behavior, and bullying is quick and easy – just follow these steps:
- Go to “Settings” on your Facebook Page
- Choose “General,” then scroll down to “Profanity Filter”
- Decide how strong you want your filter to be: Off, Medium, or Strong
- Save Changes
These quick steps tell Facebook that you don’t want words and phrases that are frequently marked as offensive by the community at large to show up on your page. Once the Profanity Filter is enabled, it prevents comments and posts that trigger the filter.
When the Profanity Filter Isn’t Enough
If someone wants to be a cyberbully, they have probably figured out how to get around the profanity filters. These people will still attempt to post comments that are rude and hurtful.
If the profanity filter isn’t enough, you can turn on comment moderation. This will take a little more foresight and thoughtfulness about what words to “moderate.”
Step One:
Go to “Settings”
Step Two:
Under “General” Choose “Page Moderation” and click “Edit”
Step Three:
Choose the words you wish to block and input them, separating each with a comma.
Step Four:
Save and Done!
The most difficult part of the whole process is choosing words to block. Here are a few to get you started:
Fat, dumb, ugly, hate, worthless, stupid, moron, idiot, gross
How to BLOCK a Person or a Page
Trolls are getting more and more creative. Fake profiles are going up like crazy…and so are fake pages! You can now like or comment as a page, so many creative trolls are getting around being blocked personally by creating a fake page!
Just this morning, one of my clients had a live shared to the wrong place…and chaos ensued. Nasty comments, “angry” reactions, all kinds of negativity.
See those “angry” faces? This dedicated troll spent almost 30 minutes reacting to every comment with “angry.” And this was only one of the culprits today.
This person set up a brand new fake page and spent 30 minutes of their day making other people miserable. So, what do you do?
Block them and ban them, delet their comments. Here is how to do each of those things:
Deleting comments:
Next to comments on page posts and lives, you’ll see three dots when you hover over that comment. Click those dots and you’ll get these choices:
You want “Moderate Comments.” Once you click it, you’ll get a pop up screen.
Check the comment(s) you want to delete and tap delete. This will automatically delete all replies to a comment you want to delete, so keep that in mind!
Banning/Blocking Someone:
This can be a little more difficult. To ban or block someone, you will need to back into your page settings and select “People and Other Pages” on the left:
Here you can search for people and pages – there are a few alternatives to filter ways people are connected to your page.
Once you’ve picked the people/pages who you would like to block by checking the box next to their names, click that little gear in the upper right corner and ban from page!
How to Block/Ban While Live
Need to ban someone while you’re
Tap “Ban From Page and Delete Comment” and they’re blocked!
Make sure you’re banning as well as deleting the comment – if they aren’t banned from your page, they’ll be back with an even worse attitude!
Ain’t Nobody Got Time for Trolls!
I hope these tips and tricks can help you if you have to deal with trolls! Those of us who have busy, productive lives don’t have time for that kind of negativity! Block those trolls and move on!
Let’s go spread positivity and good vibes. Have a crazy troll story? I’d love to hear it!
