📘 Facebook Pages

Facebook’s profanity filter, and the blocked words list beside it

A Page has two word-based controls, on the same settings screen and often confused: a profanity filter running on Meta’s own unpublished word list, and a blocked words list of up to 1,000 phrases you write yourself. Both hide matching comments rather than deleting them.

Starter word lists Test a comment free →

Checked against Meta’s Help Center on 15 September 2026.

The profanity filter

Meta’s list, not yours

Switch into your Page, then Settings & privacy → Settings → Followers and public content, and turn on Hide posts and comments with profanity (Meta).

✓ The word list is Meta’s and is not published. Meta describes it as the most commonly reported words and phrases, so you cannot audit it, extend it, or predict it.
✓ Off or on, or a degree. Meta’s current help page describes a single switch. Older business pages still talk about setting the filter to a degree, so if your Page offers strength levels, that is the older control — not something you are missing.
✓ It hides, it does not delete. A filtered comment stays visible to whoever wrote it and to their friends (Meta).

Blocked words

The list you control, and what it really does

Same screen: Hide comments containing certain words from your Page. This one is worth more than most people think (Meta).

✓ Up to 1,000 entries, in any language, and they can be phrases or emoji — not just single words.
✓ Variations are handled for you. Meta says it also hides misspellings, plurals, abbreviations and letters swapped for numbers or symbols — “TREE” catching “t.r.e.e.”, “tr33” and “#tree” — and those variants do not count against your 1,000.
✓ You can upload a CSV and copy the list to another Page, which is the only bulk tool Facebook gives you here.
✓ Only on content you created. It does not reach comments on other people’s posts, or on collaborator posts.

The third control

Moderation Assist, which is not about words at all

Under Professional dashboard → Engagement → Tools → Moderation Assist, Facebook can hide comments by who wrote them rather than what they said: accounts with no profile photo, no friends or followers, accounts under a week old, or people whose comments have been reported, deleted or hidden three or more times in the last 30 days. It also covers comments containing a link, an image, a video, or profanity in eight languages (Meta).

Two limits worth knowing: it only acts on new comments, and Meta states plainly that it does not hide comments on any ads you run — see comments on Facebook ads.

Troubleshooting

Why it looks like the filter is not working

✓ You are looking at it from the wrong account. Hidden means hidden from the public — the author and their friends still see it, so testing with your own second profile, or asking a friend, shows you a comment that is working exactly as intended.
✓ The comment is not on your own content. Blocked words cover posts you created, not other people’s posts where your Page was mentioned.
✓ It is an ad, and you were relying on Moderation Assist. Blocked words and the profanity filter do extend to ads; Moderation Assist does not.
✓ The wording is new. Meta folds in misspellings of the words you listed, but not a scam phrased in words you never thought of.

Starter lists

Five lists to paste in, whatever tool you use

These are the phrase lists CommentDefender ships as defaults. They are ordinary text — copy them into Facebook’s blocked words box if that is all you need. Phrases, not single words: “free” on its own also hides “carefree”.

  • Contact bait Invitations to move your customer into a private chat, written without the email or phone number the contact filter would catch. dm me · inbox me · whatsapp me
  • Link bait Comments that point your audience at another profile without pasting a link the URL filter could see. link in my bio · check my profile · click my profile
  • Crypto & investment scams Get-rich testimonials and "account manager" pitches, including the recovery scams that follow them. bitcoin investment · passive income · forex trading
  • Fake giveaways Prize notices from accounts that are not you, usually posted under your real giveaway to harvest the entrants. you have been selected · claim your prize · claim your reward
  • Fake platform support Accounts posing as platform support: disabled-page threats, copyright notices and appeal forms that lead to a login page. your page will be disabled · copyright violation · verify your page

Every phrase in all five lists, and a tester to try them →

When a word list stops being enough

CommentDefender adds what a list cannot do: links and contact details caught without naming them, rules per Page, a whitelist that overrules everything, and a record of what was hidden and why. 14 days, no card.

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More: Facebook comment moderation · hide or delete a comment? · Instagram’s Hidden Words