Adblock Plus already blocks all Facebook ads, including sponsored stories, page post ads, standard ads, promoted posts, and so on. Starting today however, the service is taking its blocking powers even further.
Adblock Plus now lets you remove “other unneeded, potentially unwanted elements” in Facebook News Feed and sidebar. The company itself admits that this goes above and beyond its usual feature set: “They are not advertisements. Rather, this material is actually from Facebook, and it is served to you based upon the information Facebook receives from your profile and activities.”
Adblock Plus offers you three options: block all annoyances, block only News Feed annoyances, or block only sidebar annoyances. If you have the extension installed, you can pick one here.
The 💜 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
Here is the full list of 21 elements that you can now block:
- Music Pages You May Like.
- Entertainment Pages You May Like.
- Add to Movies.
- Add to TV Shows.
- People You May Know.
- Rate To Add To Your Movies.
- Rate To Add To Your TV Shows.
- Rate Books You’ve Read.
- Rate These Places.
- Get Important News.
- Recommended Pages.
- Rate Movies You’ve Watched.
- Add to Movies.
- Add to TV Shows.
- Rate TV Shows You’ve Watched.
- Suggested Groups.
- Friend Finder/Find More Friends.
- Games You May Like.
- Play It Again.
- Suggest Friends.
- Nearby Places.
This is a big move by Adblock Plus. Blocking ads on Facebook is already a big hit to the social network’s bottom line. Now the company is attempting to modify the service’s experience.
Maybe Adblock Plus simply wants to get Facebook’s attention. The company already tried with Twitter, and that didn’t work, so why not poke Facebook? We’ll be watching closely to see if Facebook pokes back.
See also: Adblock Plus pens open letter asking Twitter to join its Acceptable Ads initiative, promises happier users and Reddit is whitelisted by Adblock Plus for only using ‘acceptable ads’
Top Image Credit: asabird
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.