Advertising
1 min read

‘Everyone has been wary’: Inside the Adblock Plus ‘acceptable ads’ committee

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Earlier this week, Adblock Plus announced the names on the independent committee set to take over the company’s “acceptable ads” program, which sets the criteria that ads must adhere to in order to be whitelisted. Because ABP has been a lightning rod of controversy within the ad industry, committee members said that they are “cautiously optimistic” and that it took a “leap of faith” for them to do business with a company that provides ad blockers to more than 100 million devices globally.

“Everyone has been wary of getting involved, even though it is a olive branch,” said a committee member requesting anonymity.

But what members can’t do is change the structure of the whitelist or vote on ABP’s business model, which has been criticized as a payola scheme by industry insiders. The IAB even called ABP’s whitelist “an extortion racket” because tech companies like Google, Amazon and Taboola have paid to have their ads unblocked.

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