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161

AdGuard promises to keep filtering Facebook ads (media.piefed.social)

submitted 2 days ago by XLE@piefed.social to c/technology@beehaw.org

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From xcancel:

The team behind uAssets, the filter lists used by uBlock Origin, says it will stop fixing ad-blocking issues on Facebook. They say Facebook keeps finding ways around new fixes, making the work increasingly difficult to sustain.

This won’t affect AdGuard’s Facebook filters. We maintain our own rules and will continue updating them.

There’s nothing to celebrate here. It shows how hard it is for small, often volunteer-run teams to keep up with tech giants — and how important their work is for everyone who wants more control over what they see online

uBlock Origin offers some AdGuard rule sets, so I don't know exactly what this means for existing uBO users.

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[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 66 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That's very good wording from them. I was worried they were going to try and throw ublock under the bus, when really ublock has had a boot on it's neck from these big tech giants.

I'm very mixed. It's a small team, they do great work and keep the internet functional for a huge chunk of us, and they're burned out. It's a defeat. However no one who uses adblock should be using Facebook either, it's a garbage platform that is literally 97% ads. (I think I saw someone flipping through posts and only got to a "friend" post after going through like 30+ other garbage)

Sad and frustrating news.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 15 points 2 days ago (2 children)

However no one who uses adblock should be using Facebook either

If you ask me for help with your computer, whether you're my mother, mother in law, or uncle, if I had to open your browser at some point then I'm gonna install uBlock Origin. It's unfortunately the price you have to pay for my help.

What I'm getting at is I've installed it on many people's computers even if they are regular Facebook users.

[–] SteevyT@beehaw.org 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I somehow managed to install ublock on my work computer.

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 6 points 1 day ago

I've worked for an org where Firefox with uBlock Origin were standard for everyone. They knew what they were doing.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 day ago

I have too (uBlock Origin)! On chrome as I'm not allowed Firefox. But when I flick through the chrome store, almost all extensions are blocked. It's like it was a deliberate decision to let us have it, which is considering the maturity of the organisation in other ways.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 6 points 2 days ago

Fair, I do the same

[–] XLE@piefed.social 20 points 2 days ago

It's a small team, they do great work and keep the internet functional for a huge chunk of us, and they're burned out. It's a defeat.

Putting work into blocking any ads is phenomenal, and tackling Facebook as long as they did is heroic, full stop. I'm a little bummed that there seems to be no way to donate to the uAssets team.

However no one who uses adblock should be using Facebook either, it's a garbage platform that is literally 97% ads.

I hate Facebook with a burning passion, but I believe it's important to keep blocking ads on it because

Philosophically, ad blockers aren't just for niche websites, they are supposed to be general-purpose content blockers for literally everybody, which is part of the purpose of web browsers: to be a user agent. (I saw a lot of people use this point back when Google was contemplating implementing Manifest V3, which ultimately prevented as users from using a browser the way they chose)
I bet a lot of people who use content blockers are not nearly as invested in privacy technology as us, which is perfectly fine, especially if it provides a gateway into being more aware.
The more normalized content blocking is (e.g. if it's even for Facebook boomers who don't care about privacy), the harder it is for it to be written off as some niche activity.