Developer of tool that allows users to replace posts seeks to 'customise the internet' – in his case, by blocking Buzzfeed

The company behind a web tool which enables users to replace other people's baby pictures with pictures of cats is on track to create an internet-wide system for hiding any content users do not want to see – whether it concerns politics, twerking or Justin Bieber.

The newest version of unbaby.me, now called Rather, replaces whatever topic users want to avoid on social media feeds with pictures of things like cats. The data collected also gives the company an insight into what else people are sick of seeing on the internet.

The chief executive and co-founder of Rather, Chris Baker, chooses topics to be included in the tool's popular section based on what has reached “critical mass”. Along with babies on Facebook and Instagram links on Twitter, Baker uses the site to block content from his former employer – the listicle-heavy social site Buzzfeed.

"What happens is these things become incredibly popular and a million of your Facebook friends post about it," Baker said.

Unbaby.me began as a joke between friends about how to block from their news feeds new parents’ never-ending streams of baby photos. The joke became a real site last year, allowing users to replace baby photos with things like cat pictures. Eventually, users gained the ability to block key phrases. Now, thanks to the more than 230,000 people who use the Chrome installation – a Firefox version is due out next week – Baker knows what is especially unpopular online: Rob Ford, twerking and the Tea Party movement.

"The philosophy of what we're trying to do is to customize the internet so that at least 51% of it makes you a little bit happier," said Baker. By blocking irritating or trendy content, Baker hopes users of Rather can focus on new or different content, for a better online experience. For instance, some users are partial to blocking the names of individuals and coworkers. One person Baker spoke to blocks a person whose politics he agrees with – just to create a balance on Facebook. Some people filter out words like “cancer” and “RIP”.

Commonly blocked posts also tend to be topical – this week the New York train derailment and drones (following Amazon’s Sunday announcement) have been (un)popular.

Baker said the strangest popular blocked item is "Elf on the Shelf" – primarily because he doesn't know what it is. For the uninitiated, The Elf on the Shelf is a Christmas-centric children's book which comes with a doll that can be used to recreate the book's tale of an elf who is meant to keep an eye on children's behavior. For some Facebook users, in the days leading up to Christmas, this means seeing daily pictures of Elf dolls in homes and classrooms.

Facebook has its own built-in version of Rather's service, without the cat pictures and anticipatory blocking. By clicking the grey down arrow to the right of each post, users are given the option to hide the post, any related posts, or all posts by that person. Reasons for doing so include: “I don’t care about posts from this person”, “It’s a meme” and “It looks like an ad”.