Facebook to circumvent ad-blocking software on desktop, because ‘choice’

Whether it’s due to aesthetics, data usage or horrible ads in general, ad-blocking software is only gaining steam these days.

The trend has however seen loads of websites ask their users to disable ad-blockers. Now, Facebook is taking a somewhat drastic approach to the software.

In a blog post, the social media juggernaut said that ads can be useful if they’re relevant and well-made.

“But because ads don’t always work this way, many people have started avoiding certain websites or apps, or using ad blocking software, to stop seeing bad ads. These have been the best options to date,” the blog post read.

“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 Facebook desktop for people who currently use ad blocking software.”

Better ad controls?

Facebook also lambasted the practice of some companies paying ad-blockers to be whitelisted – having their ads shown off.

The company said it was “a practice that is at best confusing to people and that reduces the funding needed to support the journalism and other free services that we enjoy on the web”.

Facebook also cited its new ad controls as being better for end-users. In fact, the company’s aforementioned statements claim that better controls are one of the reasons why it’s skipping ad-blockers in the first place.

“If you don’t want to see ads about a certain interest like travel or cats, you can remove the interest from your ad preferences. We also heard that people want to be able to stop seeing ads from businesses or organisations who have added them to their customer lists, and so we are adding tools that allow people to do this.”

It remains to be seen whether Facebook’s moves will really result in a better experience for users – ads are Facebook’s cash cow after all. If one thing is clear though, it’s that ads aren’t going away anytime soon…