Facebook users frustrated as normal comments start disappearing behind 'View hidden comments' label

If you’ve spent any time scrolling through Facebook lately, you might have noticed the comment sections are looking a little barren. It’s not that people have suddenly run out of things to say — far from it. Instead, a growing number of users are reporting that Meta’s aggressive moderation filters are locking perfectly normal discussions behind a “View hidden comments” screen, claiming they might be offensive or spam.

For years, Facebook has tried to tidy up comment threads by defaulting to “Most Relevant” views or burying obvious bot links. But this recent wave of hiding seems to be hitting regular users just trying to have a conversation. You click on a post that claims to have 50 comments, only to see three. Then comes the tedious game of tapping “View hidden comments,” only to reveal harmless replies like “That’s funny” or “Great photo.”

In a recent discussion on the Rittman Talks page, users vented about how the platform seems to be hiding everything by default. One user noted that while Facebook has always had filters, the new “hidden comments” tab at the bottom of threads is effectively scrubbing entire conversations.

Another user, claiming to be a beta tester, mentioned that the “Most Relevant” setting now shows almost nothing, forcing people to manually switch to “All Comments” just to see basic replies.

Redditors have also been dissecting the issue, with a thread on r/facebook gaining traction as people share their experiences. The original poster described the experience as “doomscrolling” where you have to fight the app just to read what others are saying. 

The consensus there is that the “potentially offensive” tag is being slapped on completely benign text. One user jokingly asked if we are “in China” with this level of censorship, while others theorized it might be a glitch in the AI moderation tools that can’t distinguish between a bot and a human being polite. 

This could very well be the reason. Given the fact that a lot of reports seem to have popped up around 24 hours ago, it seems like a moderation bug might be to blame. You can check out more reports of this happening here, here, and here.

While hiding spam is a necessary evil on a platform the size of Facebook, the sensitivity of these filters appears to be dialed way too high. It breaks the flow of conversation when you have to constantly tell the app, “No, I actually want to read the comments.”

That said, we’ll keep an eye out for any further developments and we’ll post an update if there’s something to share. In the meantime, feel free to drop a comment below to let us know if you too have been dealing with the problem.