The developer of the popular uBlock Origin extension has officially stopped supporting filters for social network Facebook✴. The task force realized that further crackdowns on the social network would be impossible as social networks continue to improve their mechanisms for bypassing blocks.
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The solution was announced by a member of the development team on the Reddit subreddit. The expert explained the reason for the rejection of support, saying that the platform systematically monitors open source blockers and quickly implements ad serving countermeasures. At the same time, the team does not completely close the possibility of using filters, but invites fans to submit corrections themselves through pull requests.
The specific methods used by Facebook to block content demonstrate the scale of the technological confrontation.✴ It’s been about five years now. as he wrote newwinthe platform breaks the word “sponsored” into its individual letters, wrapping each letter in its own snippet, rendering standard blocking tools useless. A representative from uBlock Origin confirmed that the social network “went a step further” and started using symbol randomization to confuse the pattern matching algorithm and ensure the display of ad creatives.
The situation is further complicated by widespread pressure from big tech companies on the ad blocker ecosystem. Previously, Google effectively disabled uBlock Origin in the Chrome browser due to the transition from Manifest V2 to MV3, and Microsoft recently approved a timeline for phasing out such extensions. Currently, only Firefox and Brave browsers retain full support for this tool.
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