Facebook Will Bypass Ad Blockers On Desktop To Show Ads Regardless

Today Facebook has declared that it will implement code that bypasses ad blockers and shows advertising to users on its desktop site. In a declaration by Facebook, the company said a new way of displaying ads that can apparently circumvent ad blockers. This means that regardless of whether we have an ad blocker in place, we will see these ads.

According to Facebook, “We’ve designed our ad formats, ad performance and controls to address the underlying reasons people have turned to ad blocking software. When we asked people about why they used ad blocking software, the primary reason we heard was to stop annoying, disruptive ads. As we offer people more powerful controls, we’ll also begin showing ads on a Facebook desktop for people who currently use ad blocking software.”

From today, Facebook users who access the site by their desktops will be displayed adverts, irrespective of whether they have a blocker installed. Facebook joins a list of other companies who have already installed the software to bypass blockers, with YouTube. While the majority of Facebook’s users visit the site on mobile devices, the move to stop ad blockers advises they are impacting revenue.

One of the main reasons why Facebook is standing up against ad-blockers is since most of their income comes from ads. Facebook VP of Engineering Andrew Bosworth said that the social network is ad-supported and that ads were part of the whole experience, the Wall Street Journal has learned. Ad-blocking has become a matter for websites and apps that are giving that free content at the cost of consumers viewing ads. Facebook is one of the main ad-supported social media networks and their move could have an effect on the dynamics of the current ad-blocking issue.

The basis for the change, according to Facebook’s VP of ads Andrew Bosworth, is that “Part of the mission of the company is to create connections between people and businesses”, which ad blockers prevent. At the same time, Boz says “Ads on Facebook don’t pay for Facebook for one person. They pay for a service that’s free around the world. The participation of everyone really helps the global community.”

Facebook said it was not ready to pay companies that run ad-blocking software to whitelist its ads. The company decided to take the direct tactic of force-feeding ads down users’ throats even if they use ad blockers.

Adblock Plus CEO Ben Williams replied almost instantly to Facebook’s blog post by calling the company “anti-user.”

“It’s also no reason to overreact: cat-and-mouse games in tech have been around as long as spammers have tried to circumvent spam filters,” he wrote, hinting that he expected his engineers to counteract anything Facebook’s team does to break his software.

To reach the new Ad Preferences page Facebook is talking about, go to your Facebook profile, select Settings -> Ads -> Edit option for Ads based on my preferences -> click the Visit Ad Preferences button.

Facebook considers that they can make their ads secure and fast which should give users no reason to block their ads in the first place. Without the ads, Facebook can take a vast hit in their income though some say that they are already getting money by selling their users’ statistics and data.