14 DAY TRIAL // In a strong message against ad-blocking software, Facebook has announced today that it will implement code that bypasses ad blockers and shows advertising to users on its desktop site.
The company announced this change in policy at the same time it revealed new advertising control features in its settings section.
Facebook's Andrew Bosworth, VP, Ads & Business Platform, says the company has been proactive in identifying the reasons people use ad blockers and has addressed most of the issues via its new Ad Preferences section.
He explains this feature will allow users to control the type of ads they see and also hide ads from companies they interacted with in the past or are still currently interacting and don't want to see their ads anymore.
Facebook is not free, says Facebook
Additionally, Bosworth also reminded users that Facebook is a free service, and just like any other website today, it pays for its servers and employees with the money it makes from ads.
Facebook said it was not willing to pay companies that run ad-blocking software to whitelist its ads. The company decided to take the blunt approach of force-feeding ads down users' throats even if they use ad blockers.
Adblock Plus CEO Ben Williams responded almost immediately 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.