Adblock Plus Beats Facebook’s Unblockable Ads
Cernescu Andrei / 8 years ago
Facebook has been working on a way to make ad-blockers obsolete on its own platform, and it recently implemented this ad blocker-proof format a little while ago. However, even though it was relatively successful at first, Adblock Plus has already figured out a way to shut down this system, at least partially. It’s worth noting that the system may not be perfect, as Facebook stated that Adblock’s method actually removes regular posts as well.
“We’re disappointed that ad blocking companies are punishing people on Facebook as these new attempts don’t just block ads but also posts from friends and Pages. This isn’t a good experience for people and we plan to address the issue.”
Even though the results are not ideal, the fact that these ads could be bypassed so quickly in the first place just goes to show how vulnerable Facebook’s system really is. Then again, it’s entirely likely that Facebook has a backup plan in place in order to keep its ads visible, but even though the importance of displaying ads is incredibly high for the company, combating Adblock Plus every two days or so is not going to be a good business plan in the long run. In a blog post, Adblock Plus’ Ben Williams, wrote the following:
“This sort of back-and-forth battle between the open-source ad-blocking community and circumventers has been going on since ad blocking was invented; so it’s very possible that Facebook will write some code that will render the filter useless — at any time. If that happens, the ad-blocking community will likely find another workaround, then Facebook might circumvent again, etc.”
In order to defeat the ad blockers in the first place, Facebook did a behind-the-scenes change and made its ads behave more like regular posts even though users still saw them as sponsored. Not too long ago, a Facebook spokesperson described ad blockers as a “blunt instrument,” which is apparently why the company has focused on creating tools such as ad preferences, all in an effort to put control back into the user’s hands.
