uBlock Origin maintainers have decided to stop continuously updating filters specifically to keep up with Facebook’s latest ad-blocking countermeasures.
Existing filters will remain, but new Facebook techniques may eventually bypass them. The decision highlights the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between ad blockers and advertising platforms.
Read more: https://digitalescapetools.com/2026/08/ublock-origin-stops-chasing-facebook-ads.html
So...continue to not use Facebook?
Man. It's going to be so much work to continue not using it.
I think I'll take a nap.
Who uses facebook anyway, today? Grandpas?
Just block the whole site 👍
Someone mentioned uBlacklist (for Firefox & Google) and I've been using it to do just that, among other sites. DuckDuckGo has its own filtering system.
I have facebook and its spinoffs (instagram, whatsapp, etc) all blocked network-wide through pi-hole. It feels good.
While facebook is a nightmarish cesspool, this sets a bad precedent.
If ad companies learn that all they have to do to get around ad blockers is rapidly change their system until developers give up, all of them will do it.
The kind of places that pour those kinds of resources into fighting Adblockers aren’t worth going to. The more people drop them, the better off they’ll be.
Yes, but then what is the point of an adblocker if it doesn't work the moment a site doesn't want it to?
This is ceding the fight. There's no way of spinning this that hides the fact it's another sign of the open internet losing the war - hard.
Got to pick your battles. Facebook is a trash website that literally Pays nazis to make posts. I say the nazis can just deal with their ad riddled cesspool.
Very few sites can do what Facebook did. YouTube is another and they're loosing.
Except that it's specifically going to be sites like Facebook and Youtube - sites with total monopoly over key services - that will put the effort into evading ad blockers like this. Yes, obviously, if everyone dropped those services and moved to a competitor then they wouldn't have a monopoly, but we live in reality and that's simply not going to happen overnight.
The way I understand it, this is less "we can't keep up" and more "FB isn't worth it."
I don't really use Facebook but the fbpurity extension is still updated and actively updates to block ads: https://www.fbpurity.com/
There has been no release of FBP since January 2026, and Fernandez has not made any public statement as to whether he is continuing to develop FBP. Many Facebook features it previously blocked, such as intrusive ads, are no longer blocked.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluff_Busting_Purity
:/
how about just ".facebook" into filters lol. That is one big ad in the first place.
If you're a Facebook user, don't. That company sucks. Stop using it. Tell others to not use it.
Honestly I think the intersection between facebook users and ublock origin users is nearly 0
This sucks. I've installed ublock origin on many of my relative's browsers. I'll probably be dealing with more virus pop up calls again.
Oh no... anyway.
I mean really, who uses FB anymore?
I mean, there's a lot of companies that have Facebook tracking pixels on their page, so there's a shadow profile of people that are exposed to them Facebook holds, plus Facebook owns Instagram and I believe WhatsApp, which are some of the most widely used apps on the planet.
Unfortunately all the good deals are on marketplace.
So I hear, its a shame that Craigs List isn't still popular. No ads, no AI slop, never have to relearn the interface, just works.
Market Place would do even better if you could use it w/o social media side, having to give up your phone number, are they forcing ID verification? Wouldn't surprise me if they were. Can't do it.
Facebook spontaneously banned me from their marketplace some years ago. I have never used it. Don’t think I’ve even checked it out.
So I hear, its a shame that Craigs List isn’t still popular. No ads, no AI slop, never have to relearn the interface, just works.
And Craigslist search is much better.
I swear, Facebook makes their marketplace search shitty on purpose, so you'll spend more time on their site searching for things.
Man whatever happened to Craigslist?
Craigslist is still fully operational and functional, and the only thing that has changed about it is that it doesn't have a personals site anymore.
I still use it, it's great. Unlike FBM, you can actually search for things and use filters and have saved searches that notify you when someone posts something that triggers a saved search. Facebook intentionally gimps their "find" functionality so you have to scroll through generic categories and look at a thousand things you don't want just to find the one thing you do. This is because it keeps you on their site - everything about Facebook is such a fucking turd sandwich.
Craigslist's problem is they just don't do anything but exist as near as I can tell. They don't update their UI (which I actually appreciate). They allow people to post the same listing every fucking day which is super annoying. They do nearly nothing to deal with scammers and bad user behavior (like storefronts claiming to be individuals) and rather than deal with that, people just left because Facebook might suck but most of the people on it who might contact you are at least verifiable.
So Craigslist is kind of threadbare, but there's still a good bit of stuff on it. If you do saved searches that trigger emails and you're patient, you can often get what you want (although I frequently update saved searches to exclude the idiot savants reposting every day).
I feel like it's becoming a bit more popular again now that OfferUp and all their ilk have, believe it or not, shit the bed even worse.
About half a billion boomers
Everybody here is saying just don't use facebook, but doesn't Facebook have ads on other websites as well, just like Google Ads? Are those going to start evading Ublock as well?
I don't think so.
Its going to be tough to continue not using facebook for 20 years now
People will still use Facebook because of Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Pages of restaurants, festivals, celebrities or simply ~~stubborn~~ uneducated friends and family using Facebook
And that's why it's important to either:
Only reason I'm still using FB is the marketplace. Nothing comes even close to it for my region.
This is when the community needs to come together and double down on creating filters for Facebook. If Facebook gets away with overwhelming adblock developers until they give up, other ad networks will follow.
You are the community, feel free to start submitting PRs.
Fair decision, doctors pull the plug on brain dead patients all the time.
What's stopping YouTube from overwhelming the maintainers in the same way?
Probably that the maintainers actually want to use youtube for themselves and don't see it as a pure resource drain like facebook.
Google has a million other revenue streams. Facebook has to pay for the Fuckerburg tech failure of the month. Pervert glasses aren't filling the coffers.
I don't have the impression Ublock worked well on Facebook even before this decision. No wonder, the site is a design mess even from the user's perspective.
If you're using UBO, why the fuck are you on Facebook to begin with? That's step 1, lose Facebook.
Will this mean Facebook ads will load on other sites, or does this only affect the Facebook pages directly?
No only on Facebook. Embedded ads are the easiest to block it's how 99% of ads are blocked.
I deleted my Facebook account in 2014. At this point I longer have no account than I had one
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