Fact-Checker Bots Watch Your Facebook, Here's How To Block Them.

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Fact-Checker Bots Watch Your Facebook, Here’s How To Block Them.

Jason Stewart

Jason StewartUpdated: May 26, 2020

Photo J Stew

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Let's get something straight right out of the gate. I am NOT a tin-foil hat conspiracy theorist in any way. I barely believe in aliens, I love Sasquatch but think it's a campfire tale, I do believe in ghosts, but that's a whole other deal.... But I saw a post on a friend's Facebook page yesterday that I was ready to give him guff about, but I was wrong.

I've heard lots of friends on Facebook, not just the regular kind but actual real people I know in real life, talk about having their posts being removed a lot, or being thrown into 'Facebook Jail' for a few days over a comment that made absolutely no sense at all. So the idea was put forth that there are certainly 'bots' on Facebook that monitor what we post.

So a friend's gave these instructions:

Go to Facebook Settings
Scroll down and hit 'Blocking'
Type the phrase 'Fact Check' into the search bar

How many bots are watching your profile? Here's a screenshot off my phone of the couple dozen bots that were watching my profile.

Photo J Stew

I was truly floored. I expected it to be the newest stupid thing on Facebook that doesn't actually do anything. And this is just the ones that have an easy profile name. there are plenty of people in your friends list right now that don't even exist. Other than to look for reasons to shut down your posts.

When I clicked through a few of these, there was an obvious political slant to some of it. But because I'm pretty middle of the road, there was a somewhat balanced feel to it. But still... it felt pretty invasive. But it also explains why people are constantly feeling like Facebook might be out to get them.

I just went ahead and blocked all that, right then and there. If you choose to do the same, you'll want to check back there every now and then and refresh that list. Sometimes it's hard not to feel like Big Brother is real. But then I remember I'm just a dude from Maine with nothing particularly crazy going on.

But still.... You can count on me going right back there in a few days, and doing this all over again.