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Hm.

On the same day the world’s biggest advertiser announced it’s scaling back targeted ads on F*c*b**k, FB announced it will start blocking ad blockers.

For your own good, you know. The entire tone of FB’s news release is so patronizing it could have come from a politician. From their statement, one would think the entire profession of journalism would collapse into smoldering ruins if FB didn’t block ad blockers (although they do have a point about ad blocking companies accepting pay from advertisers to unblock certain ads).

The makers of AdBlock Plus are not flapped by the news, describing FB’s ploy as the kind of technological cat-and-mouse game spammers have played with their marks for years.

Sure, “free” services online have to pay for themselves somehow. And indeed, for many sites committing authentic acts of journalism, ad blockers have been a problem. But companies like FB, who make billions by selling data about their users without the users’ consent (while the users themselves provide most actual content on the site), don’t have anything to be so self-righteous about.

5 Comments

  1. MamaLiberty
    MamaLiberty August 10, 2016 7:06 am

    Another good reason not to mess with “facebook.” I use ad-block (and a few other things). Sure don’t miss the pop-ups, flashing objects and auto-play videos they eliminate, not to mention all the malware they may contain. The very idea that some web site has the power and intent to overrule my decision to use those blockers gives me every incentive to avoid those sites even more enthusiastically than I’ve been doing.

    If websites want to be self supporting, they could stick to a few plain, non-threatening ads that don’t hog page space and my computer’s memory. I have clicked onto a few of those, such as on the Backwoods Home Claire blog, and have even purchased a few things because of them.

    Of course, those who don’t mind being hijacked are perfectly free to have it so – but I sincerely hope that attempting to hijack our computers in an attempt to force us to view the ads is self defeating – especially for facebook.

  2. Fred
    Fred August 10, 2016 7:25 am

    bookface is an intelligence collection platform.

  3. knobster
    knobster August 11, 2016 4:19 am

    Yet another reason I will not touch FB with a 50′ pole. My family constantly gives me a hard time for not having an account just so they can stay in touch with me. I simply tell them to pick up the phone and dial my number.

  4. idahobob
    idahobob August 11, 2016 5:06 am

    Never had nor do I want a facebook account.

    I have enough places to waste time at. 🙂

    Bob
    III

  5. M Ryan
    M Ryan August 11, 2016 8:28 am

    This happened to be the final nail in the coffin for me. After I copied the contact info of friends I don’t want to loose touch with, I killed the FB account.

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