Social media is a great tool used to interact with and meet others. There are times when you or someone else may be ‘blocked’ by another user. This feature is open for anyone to use for any reason.
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner
To protect users’ privacy or the feelings of others, Facebook does not show you who blocked you. You receive no notifications of getting blocked, nor is there a list of users who’ve blocked your account.
You may wonder how you can tell if someone has blocked you?
What is the Difference Between Blocked and Unfriended?
First of all, let’s understand that there is a big difference between being blocked and unfriended. When another user unfriends you, you can still see their profile, comments on mutual pages, and any public content they share. You can even send them another friend request.
However, if someone blocks your account, you won’t see their profile at all, and you can’t view comments, interactions, or updates. You also cannot contact them whatsoever.
In short, if someone blocks you, they effectively disappear on Facebook (at least for you). So if you don’t see them in your Friends list but can still see them on the site, you were not blocked; you got unfriended.
How to Know if Someone Has Blocked You on Facebook
Unfortunately, it can be challenging to differentiate between an account that blocked you and an account that got deactivated. Both have similarities in that they no longer appear on Facebook, you can’t message them, and you can’t see past comments or likes.
While Facebook won’t let you know if you were blocked or the other person deleted their account, there are a few things you can try. Let’s get right into it.
Search for Their Profile
If a friend is no longer showing up on your Timeline or in your Friends list, you should first search for their profile using Facebook’s user search function. This one isn’t foolproof by any means, but if you feel like you’ve been blocked based on a recent conversation or disagreement, you can double-check that you didn’t get unfriended instead. To do so, follow these steps:
- Navigate to the Facebook search bar at the top of the page.
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner - Type in the name of the profile that you are searching for.
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner
If the profile doesn’t appear (and you’ve made sure you’re searching for the right name), then you were blocked, or they’ve deactivated their account.
Check Posts and Comments
If you just got unfriended, then you’ll still see your former friend’s activity on your wall. Have they ever posted anything to your wall? Have they ever commented on any of your posts? How about posts from mutual friends? You can follow these steps to check for specific posts quickly:
- Click the arrow in the top right and select “Settings and Privacy.”
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner - Select “Activity Log.”
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner - Under “Filters,” select “People.”
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner - Search the name of the person you are looking for.
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner
Their posts and comments won’t disappear from your page. However, instead of their name appearing as a clickable link, it will appear as bold black text; this is a sure sign that you got blocked.
Use Messanger to Find Out if Someone has Blocked You
Facebook Messenger can provide insight into whether someone blocked you on Facebook or not. There are two valuable ways of checking if you got blocked through Messenger.
- Use Messenger’s search bar and type in the name of the individual you’re interested in.
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner - They will not appear. This is a key indicator that you’ve been blocked.
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner
If you try to send them a message, you will receive a prompt that this person isn’t accepting Facebook messages.
Recruit Help from a Friend
Ask a friend or a family member to pull up their Facebook account. This process works best with a disinterested third party, someone they aren’t likely to block. If the page appears, then their profile is not deactivated.
Note: Anyone that blocks you on Facebook has to wait 48 hours after unblocking you before they can send you messages, re-friend you, or view your profile, so be patient.
How to Contact a Facebook user that Blocked You
Sometimes, a Facebook user has a particular reason they blocked you and may not want to tell you what the reason is. That’s OK because it means that they had their reasons. However, if they accidentally blocked you or changed their mind if it occurred months/years ago, they will most likely respond to your message.
Create a new Facebook Account
Note: The steps below breach Facebook’s Terms of Service (one personal account per person), so use them at your own risk. Potential outcomes can be banning/removing your main Facebook account, blacklisting you based on identifiable information, losing commenting/posting abilities for up to 30 days, etc.
If someone has blocked you in error, you can follow these steps to get unblocked:
- Create a new Facebook account with new credentials, such as a new email, new username, etc.
- Search for the specific person that may have accidentally blocked you.
- Send a message using Messenger to ask them. Try to be respectful and don’t make them feel pushed to anwer.
Bear in mind that the above steps can frustrate the user who blocked you to the point of reporting you, leading to the reprimands found in the note mentioned above. Why? The other user knows who you are. They can easily report you to Facebook, which becomes associated with your real FB account.
Use a Friend of Friend’s Facebook Account
You can also use another person’s Facebook account to message the recipient, but that may not always work out well. This action makes you look desperate or pushy to find out why they blocked you. It also risks the “sender’s” account getting blocked by the user. Above all, it could frustrate the person that blocked you and lead to worse outcomes.
Log Out of Facebook, then Search for the Facebook User
This section was included but only to let you know that your chances of getting the information you need are slim to none. Also, this method only works on mobile phones.
By logging out of Facebook, you cannot get identified in any way. You can easily search the social media giant for the user that blocked you. Of course, information gets restricted based on their “Public” settings, but you can still view a glimpse of their profile. This objective aims to get contactable details, such as a phone number. If you already have that information, you can text them, but they may have also blocked your phone number in Android/iOS.
- Log out of Facebook if logged in from a browser. There’s no need to log out of the app.
- Use a search engine to find their Facebook profile. Type “Facebook [name]” in the search box.
- Click the link to their profile.
- You’ll see a glimpse of their profile page based on what they have set as “Public.”
Send an Email to the Blocker
The power of Google and other search engines is massive. Search for the person who blocked you and obtain an email address through links to other social media platforms, yellow pages, URLs indexed by the search engine such as a blogging account or a forum, etc.
- Perform a Google search or use another search engine to find information on the recipient that blocked you.
- Obtain neccessary contact info, such as an email.
- Contact the recipient via the email address you found.
Reference: How to Unblock Someone on Facebook
If someone blocked you, you could help them unblock you using the below directions. Copy/paste the process into your email or text message to reduce the effort required on their part. Otherwise, they may feel it’s not worth it or don’t have the time to figure out how to unblock you.
Be sure to wait until you get a response from the blocker before helping them unblock you. You don’t want to seem pushy or desperate, or make the blocked feel insulted. If the person is interested in unblocking you, you can help by providing these steps to them.
- Click the “arrow” in the top right and select “Settings and Privacy”
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner - Select “Settings.”
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner - On the left, click or tap “Blocking.”
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner - Locate the profile in question and click “Unblock.”
Naijatechnews | This image is copyrighted to the respective owner - After 48 hours elapses from the time you unblock someone, you can then reply or view their profile again.
Keep in mind doing this action means you will have to wait to block them again for a short time. If you’re unblocking someone to snoop at their profile, they’ll be able to see yours as well until you’re able to block them again. For more information, see our article How To Unblock Someone On Facebook.
Facebook Blocking FAQs
Someone said they knew who I blocked; how is this possible?
Because Facebook doesn’t make your blocking activities publicly available, people on your friend’s list won’t know who you’ve blocked. The only logical explanation for this is that the other people knew you blocked them (as explained above) and told your acquaintance that they’d been blocked.
Of course, Facebook’s account security isn’t foolproof either. It’s possible the person in question logged into your Facebook account and looked through your Blocked list.
If someone blocks me on Facebook, can I block them in return?
Unfortunately, you cannot block someone who blocked you on Facebook. If you’re on the person’s blocked list, their profile won’t appear in any search results, so you simply don’t have an option to block them in return. However, if they unblock you, you can block them. You’ll need to check on their profile periodically to see if they’ve unblocked you. But once they have, you’ll have 48-hours to block them. Facebook has a policy that when you unblock someone, you cannot block them again for 48 hours.
When you block someone on Messenger, what do they see?
Facebook won’t directly say that you’ve blocked them on Messenger, but it will say the person is “unavailable” immediately after. If you’re worried they’ll get mad at you after you block them, there’s another alternative to blocking. You can either unfriend them, spend less time on Facebook, or tell them directly.
Wrapping Up
Sometimes you may think that someone has blocked you out of spite or anger, but that is not always the case. This article mentioned that someone could disappear from your friend’s list simply because they unfriended you, and it talked about how someone could be unsearchable because they changed their privacy settings. Furthermore, Facebook accounts can also get suspended or deleted.
If you have been blocked online, there may be a good reason behind it, and it may be a good chance to evaluate your own behaviors online. This is not always the case though. If you’re concerned about your online friendship with another person, you can always ask them if they’ve deactivated their account. The response, or lack of response, will enlighten you to what is actually going on rather than worrying about it.
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