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My Facebook news feed has been getting bombed a lot the past few days with posts from pages I haven't liked. For example, I like Roger Ebert. In the wake of his death, Scorsese, A/V Club, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (example below), etc, whom I have not liked, are showing up in my feed with their posts on him. The same thing happened with all Marvel Cinematic Universe properties last week, while I have only liked a couple of them. How do I block such posts?

An example of the content I want to block Another example

I haven't had any luck searching Google/FB Help for promoted or sponsored content, but these aren't even the right terms. According to https://www.facebook.com/help/promote (under Where do my promoted posts show on Facebook?), promoted content is labeled "sponsored" under the "Like/Comment/Share" links.

Why is this happening now when it's never happened before? Is there a way to stop it? Is it now simply an unavoidable consequence of liking pages? If there's no way in Facebook's settings, is there a creative solution that involves something like AdBlock+?

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  • This kind of goes against what Facebook is trying to do. Make money. Facebook makes money on sponsored or promoted content. The only way I see to remove this content is to remove all your "Likes" and remove friends that have the likes you don't want to see promoted post for. This will remove most of them but also at a loss of friends. Example: You don't want to see post from Walmart. You would remove "Walmart" from your likes and remove all friends with "Walmart" likes. Kinda ridiculous but that's the only way. Facebook builds the advertising list based on you and your friends likes.
    – LeadByDesign
    Apr 5, 2013 at 15:47
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    Supposedly, you should be able to use the drop-down menu to "hide" the post that you don't want to see, and Facebook will learn from that what sponsored posts to show to you.
    – ale
    Apr 5, 2013 at 16:38
  • @designer I have no problems with the ads on the side. I want to block non-ad posts from my news feed.
    – zpletan
    Apr 5, 2013 at 17:30
  • @al, the problem is, I don't want it to show anything from a page/site I haven't liked—that's the whole point of not liking it.
    – zpletan
    Apr 5, 2013 at 17:31
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    Not gonna happen. This is Facebook's current monetization strategy.
    – ale
    Apr 5, 2013 at 17:32

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In AdBlock Plus or a similar browser extension that can use ABP filters, simply add a Facebook Annoyances blocking list at facebook.adblockplus.me to ABP.

Its 'Block news feed annoyances' list blocks "Page X is posting about Page Y" content in your news feed. I recommend the 'Block all Facebook annoyances' list which blocks that and more Facebook annoyances.

If you just want to block "Page X is posting about Page Y" content, then just add the following custom filter to ABP (this filter is also from the Facebook Annoyances blocking list):
facebook.com##.storyContent > .storyUnconnectedPost

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