Tired of seeing "Game of Thrones," "Walking Dead," and other TV or movie spoilers on social media? Facebook's new feature will help to prevent that. The social media platform has been rolling out a "Keyword Snooze" feature which is aimed at blocking content with specific keywords from reaching a timeline. That's great news for people who don't want to randomly see shocking plot news about a new movie or television show episode. It could also cut down on other social media posts that someone doesn't necessarily want to see.

'Keyword Snooze' available

On Sunday (July 1), Decider reported (via EW) that the brand new "Keyword Snooze" feature has already been introduced on some people's Facebook feeds. By enabling the feature, a Facebook user can identify specific keywords they want to block from showing up in their news feed content. So that could include "Avengers Infinity War," "Westworld," "Walking Dead," or just about any show, movie, character name, or reference out there. Other examples might be "Negan," "Jon Snow," or "Luke Skywalker."

The new feature is said to work in terms of blocking keywords from groups, friends, and pages that a Facebook member is associated with. While the feature will block or mute keywords that show up in organic content on Facebook timelines, it reportedly will not work to block ads that have those keywords.

By default, the "Keyword Snooze" feature will run for 30 days, and then a Facebook user can determine if they want to extend the "snooze" for more time. This allows for someone to catch up on those shows they haven't had the chance to watch yet.

Social media with similar features

A report from TechCrunch this past week indicated that Twitter and Instagram have similar features with a bit more to them.

Both social media platforms launched features to mute or block keywords in 2016. However, the difference between those features and the Facebook "Keyword Snooze" feature is the ability of a permanent mute on Instagram or Twitter.

TechCrunch reached out to Facebook asking why their feature doesn't allow the permanent keyword mute or block yet.

The company reportedly said, "If we're hearing from people that they want more or less time," it might become an aspect that is added to the feature.

In the case of a temporary "Keyword Snooze," fans of a particular topic will have a save from accidentally forgetting they blocked something they want to see again on their timelines in the future.

Facebook cleaning up its act

Social media has become a large part of pop culture and a part of daily life for many people. While the Facebook platform began simply as a way for college students to connect with friends, it eventually became even bigger, allowing for families, and friends to stay updated. Now it's become even bigger with pages, groups, live streaming video, a marketplace, and more on the way.

The backbone of the platform has always been the timelines, and Facebook seems to be working to clean those up. The "Keyword Snooze" feature is just the latest initiative coming to the news feeds. Another change gave Facebook platform users a way to identify the source of a "news link" someone may have posted. This was done in an effort to combat fake news from arriving on timelines.

There's no denying that the company is a juggernaut in the social media space and isn't going away any time soon. With new features to snooze or mute keywords and even silence family or friends (for a short while), it could provide a cleaner environment for those who have been wanting that.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED