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uBlock Origin maintainers have decided to stop continuously updating filters specifically to keep up with Facebook’s latest ad-blocking countermeasures.
Existing filters will remain, but new Facebook techniques may eventually bypass them. The decision highlights the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between ad blockers and advertising platforms.
Read more: https://digitalescapetools.com/2026/08/ublock-origin-stops-chasing-facebook-ads.html
So...continue to not use Facebook?
Man. It's going to be so much work to continue not using it.
I think I'll take a nap.
Who uses facebook anyway, today? Grandpas?
Just block the whole site 👍
I have facebook and its spinoffs (instagram, whatsapp, etc) all blocked network-wide through pi-hole. It feels good.
Someone mentioned uBlacklist (for Firefox & Google) and I've been using it to do just that, among other sites. DuckDuckGo has its own filtering system.
While facebook is a nightmarish cesspool, this sets a bad precedent.
If ad companies learn that all they have to do to get around ads is rapidly change their system until developers give up, all of them will do it.
The kind of places that pour those kinds of resources into fighting Adblockers aren’t worth going to. The more people drop them, the better off they’ll be.
Yes, but then what is the point of an adblocker if it doesn't work the moment a site doesn't want it to?
This is ceding the fight. There's no way of spinning this that hides the fact it's another sign of the open internet losing the war - hard.
Got to pick your battles. Facebook is a trash website that literally Pays nazis to make posts. I say the nazis can just deal with their ad riddled cesspool.
Very few sites can do what Facebook did. YouTube is another and they're loosing.
I think it's ultimately bad for FB. Either people don't care and use fb (most of those probably don't install ublock in the first place) or it will become a constant reminder of how shitty the site is.
Except that it's specifically going to be sites like Facebook and Youtube - sites with total monopoly over key services - that will put the effort into evading ad blockers like this. Yes, obviously, if everyone dropped those services and moved to a competitor then they wouldn't have a monopoly, but we live in reality and that's simply not going to happen overnight.
The way I understand it, this is less "we can't keep up" and more "FB isn't worth it."
I don't really use Facebook but the fbpurity extension is still updated and actively updates to block ads: https://www.fbpurity.com/
There has been no release of FBP since January 2026, and Fernandez has not made any public statement as to whether he is continuing to develop FBP. Many Facebook features it previously blocked, such as intrusive ads, are no longer blocked.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluff_Busting_Purity
:/
Oh damn, I remember he used to be super responsive. The second a new facebook change came and ads were slipping through, he would be there posting that he was working on it, and within hours it would be resolved. Given Facebook is actively fighting ad blockers, it must surely be constant thankless work to keep it working.
how about just ".facebook" into filters lol. That is one big ad in the first place.
If you're a Facebook user, don't. That company sucks. Stop using it. Tell others to not use it.
Oh no... anyway.
I mean really, who uses FB anymore?
I mean, there's a lot of companies that have Facebook tracking pixels on their page, so there's a shadow profile of people that are exposed to them Facebook holds, plus Facebook owns Instagram and I believe WhatsApp, which are some of the most widely used apps on the planet.
Unfortunately all the good deals are on marketplace.
So I hear, its a shame that Craigs List isn't still popular. No ads, no AI slop, never have to relearn the interface, just works.
Market Place would do even better if you could use it w/o social media side, having to give up your phone number, are they forcing ID verification? Wouldn't surprise me if they were. Can't do it.
Honestly I think the intersection between facebook users and ublock origin users is nearly 0
This sucks. I've installed ublock origin on many of my relatives browsers. I'll probably be dealing with more virus pop up calls again.
Its going to be tough to continue not using facebook for 20 years now
Everybody here is saying just don't use facebook, but doesn't Facebook have ads on other websites as well, just like Google Ads? Are those going to start evading Ublock as well?
I don't think so.
Fair decision, doctors pull the plug on brain dead patients all the time.
People will still use Facebook because of Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Pages of restaurants, festivals, celebrities or simply ~~stubborn~~ uneducated friends and family using Facebook
And that's why it's important to either:
Only reason I'm still using FB is the marketplace. Nothing comes even close to it for my region.
Marketplace is remarkably unenshittified. That's probably why it's been so dominant.
I know we've lost track of it given the years of monopoly, but connecting people to other people is a remarkably powerful and simple process. Craigslist took over just be taking classified ads and putting them online. The tech is absolutely trivial, the real challenge is getting everyone to use the same site. The issue is that you can get people to use the same site by advertising and blitzing, THEN you can use that network effect to fuck everyone over.
I think eventually, corporations will continue to enshittify everything until open source alternatives become viable and then ultimately dominant. We're already seeing this happen with Microsoft: companies and countries are realizing they can not have core services dependent on a profit-maximizing monopoly and are switching to opensource projects that they can control.
This is when the community needs to come together and double down on creating filters for Facebook. If Facebook gets away with overwhelming adblock developers until they give up, other ad networks will follow.
If you're using UBO, why the fuck are you on Facebook to begin with? That's step 1, lose Facebook.
What's stopping YouTube from overwhelming the maintainers in the same way?
Probably that the maintainers actually want to use youtube for themselves and don't see it as a pure resource drain like facebook.
Google has a million other revenue streams. Facebook has to pay for the Fuckerburg tech failure of the month. Pervert glasses aren't filling the coffers.
Will this mean Facebook ads will load on other sites, or does this only affect the Facebook pages directly?
No only on Facebook. Embedded ads are the easiest to block it's how 99% of ads are blocked.
I don't have the impression Ublock worked well on Facebook even before this decision. No wonder, the site is a design mess even from the user's perspective.
I deleted my Facebook account in 2014. At this point I longer have no account than I had one
Which means Facebook will be using its tricks elsewhere to see ads.lovely