this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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They call it "dark traffic" - ads that are not seen by tech-savvy users who have excellent ad blockers.

Not surprised that its growing. The web is unusable without an ad blocker and its only getting worse, and will continue to get worse every month.

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 61 points 6 days ago (3 children)

The trade body called it “illegal circumvention technology”, said 12ft.io has been locked by its web host, and promised to take similar action against other paywall bypassing technologies.

Just because you send bits to my network does not oblige me to render them. That's like saying I broke the law back when I had cable and changed channels during ad breaks. Falls flat on its face.

Beautifully worded 🙏

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 3 points 5 days ago

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills whenever I hear them say things like this! These things belong to me, I should be able to control them. My perception, my LITERAL GATEWAY FROM MY MIND TO REALITY is mine and I have a right to control what I see.

[–] Ebber@lemmings.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Or saying it's illegal to hang up on telemarketers

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 days ago

"Excuse me, but you didn't allow this sales person to complete their pitch. We're taking you to jail."

[–] NutWrench@lemmy.ml 72 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Website: "You appear to be using an ad blocker." Me: "You appear to be correct."

[–] m3t00@lemmy.world 28 points 6 days ago (1 children)

'disable ad block to contine'. no

[–] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There's almost always another website that has the same thing.

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[–] normalexit@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

Then I just sigh and go to archive.is and solve their captcha, so I can read the article.

[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 31 points 6 days ago (2 children)

An adblocker on your devices is equivalent to putting a Britta filter on your water tap.

[–] GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

More necessary than that, really.

[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

That entirely depends on the quality of your water.

[–] reshuffle6655@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Tangentially related but britta filters actually suck as far as I know; they're like the worst water filter for removing materials. Did a test myself with a fresh filter - 105 ppm tap to around 72 ppm vs 0 ppm for zero water pitchers and around 30ish for epic, it's been a bit so the numbers are rough for the britta and epic but I test my tap and ZW pitcher routinely.

[–] Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 21 points 6 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Advertisers do not have the right to demand my attention, or to brainwash me. I have every right to deny them and decide what to allow inside my head. This is war.

"We paid for the right to show you this!"

You paid for the opportunity not the right, but you didn't pay me, motherfucker -- and my price is everything you have or fuck off and die.

Edit: You know what? This is how I really feel about ads.

This is a consent issue, and I will not allow advertisers inside me. They hire psychologists in order to exploit humans' most vulnerable mental blind spots. They don't just brainwash us. They mindfuck the entire human species, and they do not recognize consent. We need to treat advertising as the collective mindr*pe that it is, otherwise they will never stop exploiting us, and we will never be able to build a bright future for humanity and this world. They are manipulating the trajectory of an entire species with zero regard to any future well-being. The butterfly effects are inconceivable. Our minds are sacred. The advertising industry is committing a crime against humanity that we have failed to recognize as such, because money is all that matters today. They must be stopped before Big Tech perfects brain-computer interfaces.

[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 49 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

If ad networks weren't the number 1 way to get malware installed on your machine, didn't slowly take over the dedicated space for the actual content of a website, or put pressure on the websites in question to only publish things inoffensive to the advertisers maybe adblockers wouldn't be such an issue.

If your site can't exist without being a cesspit of annoying and useless infomercials and a deployment mechanism for malicious code injection then your site should not exist.

Not too many people had an issue with static banner ads back in the day after all except greedy website operators and advertisers.

[–] J52@lemmy.nz 26 points 6 days ago

Bottom line: if I'm forced to consume ads on a device belonging to me - I will rather throw it away!

[–] DragonOracleIX@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago

Dark traffic?!?! LMAO. Can we start calling malicious ads dark advertising?

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What's frustrating to me is the idea that law makers and advertisers believe I don't have a right to alter data that comes onto things I own. And nobody chime in with the brain dead "☝️🤓 actually you don't own it." Because even if you wanna waste time with that stupid distraction, I own my computer. I built it from parts.

Controlling my perception is my right. If I wanna use things that block ads that's my right. PERIOD. I NEED TO BLOCK ADS BECAUSE OF MY DISABILITY.

[–] bigmamoth@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

You have that right at least in Europe. The nuance is that website provinding content can choose to not serve it to you. Or something like that but maybe more complexe.

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 22 points 6 days ago

Fuck yeah, advertiers are a cancer.

[–] Ironfacebuster@lemmy.world 26 points 6 days ago

I personally am not bothered at ALL by the banner video ads overlayed on top of another banner ad that opens a new tab when you try to close the banner video then another one opens covering the original banner then the page scrolls all the way back to the top and shows you an email list sign up, why would I be?

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

When piholes go mainstream they are fully cooked. Even tech illiterate in your family won't get the ads

[–] teuto@lemmy.teuto.icu 19 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I tried to give my mom a pihole, she made me get rid of it because it broke the NY times and some rando mobile game she plays. Some people can't be helped.

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[–] Binturong@lemmy.ca 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

So this confirms that people have a negative reaction to ads, which every actual internet user knows in their bones already. This means they ALSO are not even doing their one job of persuading people to buy shit. Of course this won't lead to companies reducing investment for ad carrying or finding ways to make them more appealing, that costs money, instead they will use AI generators to produce WORSE ads and leverage their capital to have governments capitulate and force users to watch by banning blockers, probably VPNs too. Bill Hicks was the most correct about advertising, and remains undefeated.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 6 days ago

A true visionary, taken too soon.

Only a billion. Need to quintuple that.

[–] m3t00@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

what is with p.i.p video everywhere. hate it. can't figure out how to block it. firefox

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