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Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker?

Unfortunately, a close acquaintance of mine is being stalked on Facebook by a troubled person they were once friends with. We suspect they are utilizing this method of temporary deactivations: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna46808719

Basically they can't block them or even see if they are friends with them unless they happen to be online long enough to search.

The easy answer is to not use Facebook but unfortunately Facebook is desired for posting and sharing photos with international family members and friends.

What is the next best way to solve this problem? Can we get in contact with someone at Facebook somehow to get a setting that simply unfriends people that deactivate their accounts repeatedly?

( 18 comments | 14 points | on HN )
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by cookiengineer on Monday June 27, 2022 @12:53AM (#31890708)
Well, technically you could write a chrome extension and leave the extension and computer running over night...and automate the clicks to block the user once it appears again.

I did something like this in the past but facebook updated their design so my extension meanwhile is useless. A former friend of mine's account got compromised and was spamming me (via email) every time their account was online. This was the only way to get rid of it.

Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by sha256sum on Sunday June 26, 2022 @08:35PM (#31889428)
> The easy answer is to not use Facebook but unfortunately Facebook is desired for posting and sharing photos with international family members and friends.

Well then your friend will continue to run this risk and it sounds like they understand that.

Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by gs17 on Monday June 27, 2022 @12:32AM (#31890611)
I haven't posted to Facebook in a long time, but years ago I only shared my posts with a specific list which had the friends I really wanted to see things. If the issue is the stalker seeing/interacting with posts, making a similar list for the rest of their friends list (which may unfortunately take some time if there's hundreds of them) could at least give them no new content to stalk.
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by rendall on Tuesday June 28, 2022 @06:15AM (#31906003)
I deleted my account years ago, so I'm not sure if this still applies. I created a private group and added everyone I cared about, and then treated it like my profile timeline. I never posted to my actual profile timeline.
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by bckr on Sunday June 26, 2022 @08:32PM (#31889411)
Perhaps you can create an automation to scan their friends list continuously and alert the user when this person is online so that they can manually unfriend them.
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by cyberlurker on Sunday June 26, 2022 @08:53PM (#31889515)
Oooh, maybe.
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by bckr on Sunday June 26, 2022 @09:47PM (#31889790)
feel free to reach out if you want to brainstorm this
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by hackily on Monday June 27, 2022 @03:23AM (#31891566)
I believe blocking a user via Facebook messenger presents an option to defriend the user as well.
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by cyberlurker on Monday June 27, 2022 @06:35AM (#31892674)
Oh, I will try this. Thank you.
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by Group_B on Sunday June 26, 2022 @11:44PM (#31890371)
Download their entire facebook profile. Then delete that account and create a new one. Add back all their friends.
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by Nextgrid on Sunday June 26, 2022 @11:48PM (#31890395)
Not deleting the old account is a better idea. Let the stalker stalk the inactive account, that way unless they notice they will have no reason to search for a new account.
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by Group_B on Tuesday June 28, 2022 @08:40AM (#31906873)
Yeah that’s a better idea actually
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by speedgoose on Monday June 27, 2022 @01:58AM (#31891065)
You could configure your content to only be visible for an allowed list of friends and not all of them. This feature was developed by Facebook to compete with Google+.
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by twobitshifter on Sunday June 26, 2022 @08:45PM (#31889475)
There may be a way for facebook to do it. If not your friend could relaunch a second facebook with only their friends as of today.
Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by kleer001 on Sunday June 26, 2022 @11:18PM (#31890234)
> How do I stop this Facebook stalker?

> unfortunately Facebook is desired for posting and sharing photos

A = B & A != B

No solution. You'd need an |

Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by atoav on Monday June 27, 2022 @02:49AM (#31891363)
This is rather

  A = B & A ≠ C
You assume the stalker stalking is the same as someone sharing their data online. And while they are related, they are not the same, which means the stalker can be targeted by seperate means (as discussed in this thread).

I'd generally advice against abusing formal logic in such a way for real world problems that involve social, legal and technical solutions as this might trick you into ignoring what is there.

Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by kleer001 on Monday June 27, 2022 @02:47PM (#31898912)
> You assume the stalker stalking is the same as someone sharing their data online.

I'm just going on OP's logic.

"I don't want something to happen in a place I want to keep going to."

Well, stop going there.

Personally I like Robert Pattinson's solution to a stalker, purported solution...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/robert-pattinso...

Probably false, and probably not applicable.

Re:Ask HN: How do I stop this Facebook stalker? by atoav on Monday June 27, 2022 @05:03PM (#31900764)
If you don't wanna get hit by a care while crossing a street not crossing any street is certainly a solution.

But you could A) still be hit by a car on the sidewalk and B) maybe other solutions like looking before crossing, only taking pedestrian crossings etc. mitigate the problem in a much better way that lets you live your life in a much more free manner.