Advertisers and Ad Networks whitelisted -> publisher abuses

This is the place to discuss issues with the acceptable ads list like a website no longer complying with the criteria.
Post Reply
rdnz
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2018 10:29 pm

Advertisers and Ad Networks whitelisted -> publisher abuses

Post by rdnz »

How does it make sense to whitelist Advertisers or Ad Networks (https://acceptableads.com/get-whitelisted/) when acceptable ads criteria are mainly about the way advertisements are displayed but not their content? Is it not in the publisher's power to make an advertisement acceptable or not?
User avatar
greiner
ABP Developer
Posts: 899
Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:29 pm
Location: Cologne, Germany

Re: Advertisers and Ad Networks whitelisted -> publisher abuses

Post by greiner »

Nowadays most publishers don't even know which ads are being shown on their websites but instead only control from which sources the ads are coming from. Some ad networks such as AdSense at least give them a little bit more control over the ads themselves (e.g. the formatting, whether they're animated, what category of ads to show). However, it's still very limited and most of them are still having trouble even identifying something as obvious as malicious ads.

On top of that, adblockers can't block ads based on their content because for that the ad would need to be downloaded in the first place and some further processing would need to happen. Unblocking ads based on their content would be even more challenging than that. Therefore even if there were criteria for the content of the ads, they would be difficult/impossible to enforce.
AntonelaG
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2020 10:27 pm

Re: Advertisers and Ad Networks whitelisted -> publisher abuses

Post by AntonelaG »

I share your opinion that ad blockers cannot block ads based on their content because for that the ad would need to be downloaded first and would require some additional processing. But they help a lot to keep the navigation very friendly
AntonelaG
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2020 10:27 pm

Re: Advertisers and Ad Networks whitelisted -> publisher abuses

Post by AntonelaG »

I share your opinion that ad blockers cannot block ads based on their content because for that the ad would need to be downloaded first and would require some additional processing. But they help a lot to keep the navigation very friendly
Post Reply