How to Make a Comment on Facebook Without Being a Friend

By Melly Parker

Privacy settings dictate whose information you can see and interact with.
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Facebook is all about reaching out and interacting with people, whether it's through Facebook games, Timeline comments or status posts. Because your friends can be involved in the updates and photos of someone with whom you're not connected, it's only natural that you'd want to comment on the activity of people who aren't friends from time to time. Whether or not you can do so depends on the person who posted the content.

Commenting

If you've been tagged in a nonfriend's activity, whether it's a photo or a status update, you should be able to comment on it. The comment box will be displayed directly below the update. Type in your comment and press "Enter" to post it. Once the comment has been entered, you can delete it at your leisure. While you'll be able to comment on most activity you can see in your feed, sometimes a piece of content belonging to a non-friend that a friend has liked or commented on will be posted to the News Feed and you won't be given the comment option.

Public

If the person you want to comment to has a public post, you can leave a comment. Public posts are open to everyone on the Internet and comments can be left by anyone with a Facebook account. If the comment box appears under the content the person posted, you can type your comment, press "Enter" and see it uploaded to the person's Timeline.

Other Options

Unfortunately, unless you're tagged in an activity or the activity is public, you can't comment on nonfriends' information. It's one way that Facebook enables users to protect personal information and determine with whom they share posts. You always have the option of sending the person a message on Facebook. You can also look for the "Share" option to publish the content to your own Timeline. Before posting, you have the option to add a comment at the top of the post you make. If the person posting content has a "Follow" option, consider following the person rather than friending them. Some users allow followers to comment.

Requesting a Tag

If you want to comment on something but weren't tagged, ask a mutual friend to leave a comment tagging you. Once you've been tagged -- depending on the original user's privacy settings -- you can leave the comment you want to make. Without being tagged on a nonfriend's status, however, you can't leave a message and the privacy settings may be set so that even tagged users can't leave comments.

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