Facebook have entered a battle with Adblock Plus to ensure that advertising, which is Facebook’s main source of revenue, cannot be blocked on the social media site.
Last week Facebook made changes to its news feed that circumvented Adblock’s software, sparking a response from Adblock that blocked Facebook’s move. Both companies have made further moves in the battle, which risks Facebook’s entire business model – without being able to display adverts, Facebook’s funding will fail.
The social media site’s head of advertising, Andrew Bosworth, commented said “the new attempts don’t just block ads but also posts from friends and Pages”, before vowing to address the issue.
In a statement, Facebook said, “ad blockers are a blunt instrument, which is why we’ve instead focused on building tools like ad preferences to put control in people’s hands.”
Adblock offers the option for companies to ‘whitelist’ their sites – in return for payment. Facebook have made it clear they will not pay to be whitelisted, instead offering their customers control over adverts through their advertising controls.