newsonaut

Turning inner space into outer space

May 27, 2018

How to block Facebook login / signup pop-up

I’ve been thinking about deleting my Facebook account, but I’m worried that I will still need access to it from time to time. For example, I might want information about a local event, and they’ve decided to post about it only on Facebook.

You can visit Facebook pages without signing up or logging in, but you have to contend with an annoying pop-up that covers a big chunk of the bottom. It grows to cover the entire page if you scroll down.

I found a way to stop this, but it took a fair bit of searching. So I thought I’d post it here in the hope that this will make things easier for other people in my boat.

First, install uBlock Origin as an add-on or extension to your browser. This is a great open source ad blocker that works flawlessly. It has the option of allowing you to whitelist sites that you favour, so there’s no need to feel guilty about denying ad revenue to the good guys.

Open uBlock, and click on the dashboard icon at the top right.

From there you can click on the My Filters tab. This is an area that allows you to customize what gets blocked — including Facebook’s annoying pop-ups.

Copy and paste the following into the dashboard, and click Apply Changes.

www.facebook.com###pagelet_growth_expanding_cta

That should do the trick. You can check out Facebook to your heart’s content without Facebook knowing about it.