Adblock Plus has denied it plans to sell ads, despite multiple reports claiming it would, citing “misinformation” in the market.
Last week, the adblocking software company announced it would launch an advertising service to help marketers place “acceptable” ads, hoping to combat intrusive ads on the internet.
In a blog post on the Adblock Plus website its head of communications, Ben Williams, said: "Starting today we’re launching the beta version of a fully functional ad-tech platform that will make whitelisting faster and easier."
The idea behind the Acceptable Ads platform is it will show only whitelisted ads – ads that conform to certain specifications.
Now Adblock Plus has released a statement saying it has no intention of ever selling ads, but believes blocking all ads is not the solution to "fix a broken business model".
“The Acceptable Ads Platform is simply a tool that makes it easier for publishers to have non-intrusive ads on their websites. This allows websites, especially small and medium-sized blogs, to benefit from the Acceptable Ads initiative," AdBlock Plus says.
The Acceptable Ads format is activated by default, which has led some users questioning if they will be forced to view ads - going against the core purpose of the company which is to block ads.
"A large majority of our users want to support websites with ads that are non-intrusive which is an important reason why Acceptable Ads is activated by default. Everyone else can easily disable it and block ALL ads.
"The main reason Acceptable Ads is on default is that we wholeheartedly believe that granular, partial ad blocking is better than complete ad blocking. If you disagree, again, you can block them all."
The backflip from Adblock Plus could be due to the backlash it received from partners Google and AppNexus, which were quick to pull their support following the announcement.
At the time, AppNexus released a statement saying the move is “fundamentally harmful to the ecosystem” and Google’s ad boss said it would be ending its relationship with Adblock Plus’ ad tech company ComboTag.
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