Facebook has this nifty feature that allows someone to upload a photo, then “tag” the picture with the names of their Facebook friends who are in it. The information then appears on the person’s Profile page and it’s accessible from the “View Photos of” link beneath their profile picture. It also means that when someone comments on the photo, the “taggee” receives the comment.
While this is a fun function, it can also be abused. I’ve been tagged in pictures that I didn’t appear in. One time, a friend posted a cute picture of her son and tagged virtually every friend she had. She did this because she wanted all of us to “notice” her picture. I don’t think she meant to be annoying, but by the 20th notification in 15 minutes when someone commented, I was annoyed.
Another time I was tagged when someone posted political cartoon that I found very offensive. I privately contacted the person and asked why he tagged me. He said that he felt strongly about the issue and wanted to make sure his friends were “informed” so he tagged everyone. I politely told him that I use Facebook for both personal and professional reasons, so I don’t post about religion or politics. I also told him that I didn’t want to be associated with his political cause.
I then removed the tag. This is an easy process. Simply view the photo and find your own name. You’ll see “remove tag” next to your name – just select that. The tag is removed and the image is no longer linked to your profile.
What do you do when someone posts something on your FB page that you don’t like? If the post is on your wall, click “Remove” and poof, it’s gone. If someone posts a comment to one of your own posts, you can either delete just that comment or the entire thread.
Because we’re all friends, you may not want to risk offending someone by deleting something they wrote. However, there’s nothing that says you have to accept something you don’t like. I could tell you several ways to handle this, but I’d rather refer you to a blog by Elizabeth Suárez, an expert in conflict resolution. Elizabeth wrote an excellent post about How to Manage Conflict on Facebook.
I’d love to hear from you. Has this happened to you and if so, what did you do?
Great post, Deb!
Thanks!
Like always, an excellent post. I just got tagged by a friend that is offering a workshop. She tagged over 60 people. Quite annoying. Your approach on how to manage your friend with the political reference tag was right on! BTW, thank you for plugging my blog!
Happy to provide the link to you as you have terrific advice!
I think there’s a privacy setting you can adjust so that you can control who sees photos that have you tagged in them. That way you don’t have to delete or untag each time it happens.
Wonder if someone can verify?
You can set your Privacy settings to allow “Everyone”, “Friends of Friends”, “Friends” or “Customize” for any photo you’re tagged in. That still doesn’t stop someone from tagging you when you really don’t want to be tagged. They do have to be friends with you, though, before they can tag you.
Okay–I went and checked my settings. You’re right–except there also appears to be a setting within “Customize” under the “Things Others Share” section where you can select “Only Me” for “Photos and Videos I’m Tagged In”.
That makes me feel a bit better in that if someone tags me in their photo, only I can see that I’m tagged in it.
Now I think I need to test it. Does it mean noone else can see the photo, or just that noone else can see that I was tagged.
Customizing is a great solution! Everyone who is friends with the original poster will see the photo, but you’re correct that only you will see that you’re tagged.
Thanks for the interaction on this!!
An insightful post there mate . Thanks for posting .
Glad you enjoy my posts. I hope you’ll comment on future ones!
Keep up the great works guys. I’ve added you to my blogroll.
Thanks and I hope you’ll comment again in the future.