Anti-Trump netizens have begun ditching the AdBlock app en masse, after users reported they couldn’t turn off a YouTube political advertisement sponsored by the president’s campaign.
The online outrage over US President Donald Trump’s campaign ads began on Tuesday, prompting AdBlock – a browser extension that allows adverts to be filtered out online – to trend on Twitter. YouTube videos with titles such as “Did something happen to Joe Biden?” and “Democrats ruined their cities” apparently couldn’t be skipped, blocked or decreased in volume, according to some Twitter users.
Meanwhile, some users reported that the website’s landing page had been taken over by a Trump ad with its audio playing without any visual indication as to where to turn it off.
Anyone else having this issue where the YouTube homepage is playing literal Trump ads at you? pic.twitter.com/vxjbngbehy
— 💾WysiWyg Protogen📡 (@WysWyg_Protogen) August 19, 2020
@YouTube you’re letting anti-Biden ads pop up, even with Adblock in place. I WAS watching the convention on your playform. Not until these are gone. pic.twitter.com/Do9Tblqdyf
— TXShamrock665 ☘️ (@TXShamrock665) August 19, 2020
This is on YouTube Mobile. pic.twitter.com/wgUPWxt3tJ
— Quin (@QMerkson) August 19, 2020
This caused an avalanche of criticism, that engulfed both the video platform and the AdBlock service, while some people described the inescapable ads as “dystopian.”
Later, it turned out that even the paid version of the service, AdBlock Plus, did not filter out the Trump ads, adding fuel to the fire, as people began advocating for a switch to other ad-blocking apps.
To offer some clarity: AdBlock Plus (the one you've probably heard of) began selling advertising space through it's service in 2016. Companies can buy ad space in ABP, so ads on sites would be replaced with "acceptable ads". https://t.co/EJmm5i3Wh2 https://t.co/36wuneeRyl
— Pyronoid! (@PyronoidD) August 19, 2020
However, not everybody participated in the panic over a few ads, with other users urging the crowd to “grow up” and stop throwing a “hissy fit.”
The service itself didn’t make any comment on the matter and resorted to replying with a seemingly automated message: “Thanks for letting us know! Our team is looking into it now.”
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