Adblock Plus releases workaround to Facebook’s ad block bypass

Adblock Plus yesterday released a workaround to Facebook's ad block bypass that also removed posts from friends and Pages, not just ads, Facebook said in a statement provided to TechCrunch.

''We're disappointed that ad blocking companies are punishing people on Facebook as these new attempts don't just block ads but also posts from friends and Pages. This isn't a good experience for people and we plan to address the issue. 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.''

That ''plan to address the issue'' would soon be in place and according to Josh Costine of techcrunch.com, author of the report. He cited, a source close to Facebook as saying yesterday, that possibly within hours, the company would push an update to its site's code that would nullify Adblock Plus' workaround.

However, the cat-and-mouse game would likely continue.

"We promised that the open source community would have a solution very soon, and, frankly, they've beaten even our own expectations," Adblock Plus said in a blog post yesterday. The fact that Adblock Plus was open source meant that anyone could contribute to the software and present updates.

Facebook had said that any attempts to override its anti-ad-blocker would force pages to load slowly, in a bid to deter users from wanting to use them.

But communities across the internet started working on ways to beat the social network. Internet forums on sites like Reddit buzzed with conversations about ways to defeat the social network's ad-blocking force field.

According to commentators, Adblock Plus was perhaps the most widely known software that filtered all types of ads from websites. However, certain types of ads it deemed "acceptable" were allowed to pass through its net, though it charged large companies for the privilege of participating in that programme.