Story by
Owen Williams
Former TNW employeeOwen was a reporter for TNW based in Amsterdam, now a full-time freelance writer and consultant helping technology companies make their word Owen was a reporter for TNW based in Amsterdam, now a full-time freelance writer and consultant helping technology companies make their words friendlier. In his spare time he codes, writes newsletters and cycles around the city.
WIRED announced this week a novel approach to dealing with adblocking users: either they’ll be blocked entirely from seeing the site, or they can pay a small fee each month to get ad-free access.
Some people weren’t happy about that change, but it’s interesting to see publishers coming up with alternative ways for people that use adblockers to help support them.
Of course, the internet won’t take this lying down, so the adblocker-blocker has been born. It’s simple, really: it tricks sites that use anti-adblocker technology into thinking you aren’t using an adblocker.
The adblocker-blocker lets you keep your adblocker on when you visit a page that would usually disable it by using a JavaScript file and filter list. This means you can work around bans on adblockers from common news companies, like Forbes, which lock you out when you’re detected.
It works against a number of different technologies used to detect adblock users, and is likely to be a part of the next arms race as publishers work out how to block the adblockers using adblocker-blockers.
➤ Anti-Adblock Killer [Firefox / Chrome / Opera / Safari]