this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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Adblockers stop publishers serving ads to (or even seeing) 1bn web users - Press Gazette (pressgazette.co.uk)
submitted 4 days ago by 1984@lemmy.today to c/technology@lemmy.world
347 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

They call it "dark traffic" - ads that are not seen by tech-savvy users who have excellent ad blockers.

Not surprised that its growing. The web is unusable without an ad blocker and its only getting worse, and will continue to get worse every month.

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[–] WraithGear@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

“And Scott Messer, founder of publishing adtech consultancy Messer Media, added: “Dark traffic is unlike anything we have seen before. It’s demonetising publisher content at scale without user consent. 

“Publishers already face an existential-level threat in the face of AI reducing referral traffic. This is another slice that publishers cannot afford to lose.””

https://youtu.be/ZTt-kfPvRks

[–] kayohtie@pawb.social 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

"Without user consent" is a load of crap.

Honestly the scale makes me wonder how much is because it's fucking AI bots.

[–] WraithGear@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

listen, if browsers just block ads as a matter of their existence and the average joe is unaware they are blocking ads, then all the better. this article references a poll that specifically asks if the users know they are hard blocking ads, and just under half say they were not. which is good news, as that is farther reach then what user competency rates would have got. i am just taking that poll at face value.

[–] Tiger666@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 days ago

Good, I hope they go the way of the telegraph and whale oil salesman.

[–] brot@feddit.org 4 points 3 days ago

The quote is even worse when you take this snippet from above:

The study discovered that the majority of users did not choose to block ads, with ad-blocking technology often activated by a third-party like their employer at a network level, their educational institution, security software they installed, or public Wi-Fi networks. For example ad-blocking tech can be bundled with VPNs (virtual private networks that hide a web user’s location) and built into browsers like BRave and Duck Duck Go. There are also dedicated apps and cross-platform brands such as AdGuard which describes itself as “the world’s most advanced ad blocker” that can “even” block on Youtube.

So they are trying to frame corporate security policies as "no consent". Which totally does not make sense as the contract the worker signed is consent for corporate IT to manage the computer and also to secure it against malware serves via ads. And to even suggest that users who are using a VPN with built in adblock or an alternative browser do not want to use the features the software they installed come with, is crap