claim: Instructions explain how to block Facebook users who are following you without your knowledge.
origin: In early January 2017 a rumor swept Facebook asserting that â€œFacebook securityâ€ people were being paid to watch individual accounts: Â Â According to that rumor, entering the term â€œFacebook Securityâ€ into Facebookâ€™s â€œblock usersâ€ field would reveal a list of people whom the social network had engaged to furtively monitor your activity, and each of whom had to be individually blocked by you to prevent them from spying on you: < [D]id you know there are people literally watching your Facebook account? Yes. There are people who have a specific duty to monitor your posts and activity. While there are many Facebook secrets, for those who enjoy privacy, this one is for you! Here is what you need to do to block the majority of the accounts that monitor your Facebook: 1. > Log into Facebook 2. > Account Settings 3. > Click on blocking 4. > In the search field where it says â€œBlock Usersâ€ type in: â€œFacebook Securityâ€ 5. > A new window will pop up. The list you see is a list of [most likely] Facebook employees, spies, and private accounts that are paid to shill for who knows who (sarcasm (kind of)). 6. > Go down the list, and if you donâ€™t like being monitored, just hit the â€œblock button.â€ Some of the accounts are unable to be blocked. While this is somewhat disturbing, you must remember that Facebook owns everything Facebook, so in essence, you â€œagreedâ€ to be monitored. (I know. What moral and reasonable organization needs to hire people to monitor you? Right?) > However, following these instructions does nothing to uncover or block the (non-existent) Facebook security personnel who are supposedly monitoring your online activities. Entering the term â€œFacebook Securityâ€ into â€œBlock Usersâ€ search box simply returns â€œprofiles of [users] who have used those particular words somewhere on their profile [or] in a place thatâ€™s visible to the individual, as in a public post.â€ The list returned by this search neither includes people who are furtively following you, nor persons employed to spy on you by Facebook security. In September 2017, this rumor took on a slightly new form (one which eliminated the paranoid reference to â€œFacebook securityâ€):