Facebook’s restrict feature allows you to limit another person’s access to your profile and posts without completely unfriending or blocking them. When you restrict someone, they can still see your public posts and things you share on a mutual friend’s profile. However, restricting limits what they can see of your own timeline. Many users wonder whether restricted people are notified or can tell that you have restricted them. Here is what you need to know about restricting someone on Facebook and whether they are alerted or can tell.
What Does Restricting Someone on Facebook Do?
When you restrict someone on Facebook, you limit that person’s ability to see and interact with your posts and profile. Specifically, restricting someone does the following:
- They will no longer be able to see posts on your timeline that are set to Friends only. They will only see your public posts.
- They will no longer be able to comment on or react to your posts.
- They will no longer see updates about your activities or things you are tagged in.
- They will no longer be suggested as someone to tag in your posts.
- They will no longer be able to search for you in Facebook search.
- Your messages with them will be moved to the Message Requests folder unless you conversed in the past 14 days.
In summary, restricting limits what someone can view on your profile and prevents them from further interacting with your timeline. It gives you control over their access without completely disconnecting on Facebook.
Are People Notified When You Restrict Them?
When you restrict someone on Facebook, they are not notified or alerted about it through any kind of official notification from Facebook. There is no message, email, or indicator sent to them informing them that you have restricted their access to your profile.
The reason for this is that Facebook wants to enable users to limit interactions with certain people without causing additional drama or conflict. If people were notified when they were restricted, it could lead to uncomfortable confrontations or messages demanding explanations.
Can Someone Tell if They’ve Been Restricted?
While restricted individuals are not directly notified about your actions, there are some changes that occur which may tip them off that something has changed. If they are observant, they may be able to piece together context clues and realize your access to their profile has been limited. Some signs that could indicate they are restricted include:
- Your posts no longer show up on their feed unless shared publicly.
- Older posts and photos they had access to are no longer visible.
- They can no longer comment on or react to your posts.
- Their comments have been removed from your posts.
- They can no longer tag you in posts, photos, or events.
- Their messages now go into a separate Message Requests folder.
Savvy Facebook users may pick up on one or more of these changes and deduce that you have restricted them. However, there is no definitive way for them to know for sure, since people also restrict access for other reasons like taking a social media break.
Will They Be Told if They Try to Interact with You?
If a restricted person tries to comment on your post or view your profile, they will not get a message that says you restricted them. However, depending on the action attempted, they may see indicators that suggest something has changed:
- Commenting: Their comment will fail to post and disappear, which may signal that you limited their interactions.
- Tagging: They will not see the option to tag you in posts anymore.
- Messaging: They will see their messages go into Message Requests rather than your main inbox.
- Searching: They will not find your profile through Facebook search, indicating you may have blocked them.
In each case, they have to infer based on these interactions that you may have restricted them. There is no definitive notice provided by Facebook to confirm it.
Will Mutual Friends Be Told?
When you restrict someone on Facebook, it does not notify any of your mutual friends or contacts. The restriction is contained just between you and that person. Others will not receive alerts or messages about it.
This prevents wider social implications or drama from your decision to restrict someone. It enables you to limit interactions without making it a “public affair” known by all mutual connections.
Might Mutual Friends Notice Changes?
While mutual friends are not informed directly, they may also notice changes that seem to indicate you restricted someone. For example, they may see that:
- That person’s comments are removed from your posts.
- You no longer appear together in photos or tags.
- You and that person no longer comment on or engage with each other’s posts.
Based on this context, they may deduce that you restricted the person, even though they were not notified officially. But there would be no way for them to know definitively.
Will Pages or Groups Be Informed?
If you restrict someone on Facebook who helps manage or administers any of the same Pages or Groups as you, other admins or editors will not be notified. The restriction exists only between your personal profiles and does not affect your roles in managing communal assets like Pages or Groups.
Restricting someone from your personal profile does not remove their admin access to shared Pages or Groups you both are responsible for. They can continue managing those assets normally. And other admins will not know that you restricted this person on your own personal profile.
Can You Tell if You’ve Been Restricted by Someone?
Just as others are not informed when you restrict them, you are similarly not notified if someone restricts you on Facebook. However, you may be able to tell if you have been restricted by paying attention to the same signs of limited access.
Some indications that someone may have restricted you include:
- You no longer see certain posts from their profile timeline.
- You can’t view some of their older photos and posts.
- You are unable to comment on or react to their posts.
- Your comments have been removed.
- You don’t see updates about their activities.
- You can no longer tag them.
- Your messages now go to their Message Requests.
Piecing together these contextual clues may lead you to believe you have been restricted, but there is no definite notification to confirm it.
Should You Tell Someone You Restricted Them?
Since Facebook does not notify people when they are restricted, it is up to you whether to inform them directly. There are a few advantages of telling them:
- They will not wonder why they are not seeing your updates anymore.
- It provides closure on your social media relationship.
- It may prompt them not to attempt contacting you further.
However, some reasons you may not want to tell them include:
- You want a clean break and no further communication.
- You worry it may create drama or negative interactions.
- The relationship issues are clear enough that they should understand.
Evaluate your specific situation and relationship to decide if informing them is worthwhile or not.
How to Notify Someone You Restricted Them
If you decide to tell someone directly that you restricted them, you have a couple options:
- Send them a message explaining your decision before restricting them.
- Use another communication channel outside Facebook to inform them.
A message is best if you want to provide details or closure on why you felt restricting was necessary. Using phone, text, email, or an outside messaging app lets you notify without re-engaging on Facebook itself.
Can You Undo Restricting Someone?
If you decide later on that you want to undo restricting someone and restore their access to your profile, it is easy to reverse.
On desktop:
- Go to your Facebook profile and click “Friends” in the left sidebar.
- Click “Restricted List” near the top.
- Locate the restricted person and click the three dots icon next to their name.
- Select “Unrestrict” to remove the limitation.
On mobile:
- Go to your profile and tap the three-line menu button.
- Scroll down and tap “Restricted.”
- Tap the three dots next to the restricted person’s name.
- Choose “Unrestrict” to lift the restriction.
This will restore their ability to view your full profile and interact with your posts again.
Conclusion
Restricting someone on Facebook limits their access to your profile without completely disconnecting. It does not send them an official notification alerting them that you restricted them. However, context clues like limited profile and post visibility may tip them off that something changed. Similarly, mutual friends are not notified, but may notice signs of restricted interaction. If you do want to inform someone directly, you can message them or use an outside channel. Restricting is fully reversible if you later decide to restore someone’s access. Use Facebook’s restriction judiciously when you want to curate access without causing social disruption.