Facebook will now let you temporarily erase your ex after a bad breakup

MENLO PARK, Calif. -- Need a break from your ex after a particularly bad breakup? Facebook has introduced a new feature that lets you temporarily create space between you and your former partner.

The company's new Take a Break feature affords users more control over when they see their ex on Facebook, what posts their ex can see and who can see past posts mentioning their ex. The feature allows users to limit access without requiring them to unfollow or permanently unfriend one another.

While the feature was designed with romantic relationships in mind, it can be used to make space in any pairing gone wrong -- friends, business partners or even relatives, according to Facebook.

Take a Break, a product of the company's so-called Compassion Team, is one of several recent changes to the social platform that are intended to foster social interaction and engagement between users. A similar feature, Snooze, allows users to hide a person, page or group from their timeline for 30 days.

As the social network continues to fight fake news and spam, it has rolled out changes to the news feed intended to "provide more opportunities for meaningful interactions and reduce passive consumption of low-quality content," the company said.

A new set of tools offers social support to those in distress who may be contemplating suicide. Facebook is now using artificial intelligence to detect suicidal posts before they're reported by another user and has also launched support groups to connect those in need with mental health resources.