I have a Pi-hole adblocker on the local networks at the gated compound. It isn’t really to block advertising; it’s to block malware.
Imagine that you had approached the New York Times in 1990 and said, “hey, I’d like to take out a quarter-page ad and I’ll pay you full rates” but the one catch is that you wanted to be able to go into the pressroom and insert your ad copy as the paper was being printed, with no opportunity for the Times to see, review, or alter the ad in any way. They would have laughed in your face. They would almost certainly have told you that they had a duty to their readers to make sure the ad was legal and not deceptive.
Ad-supported online publications have completely abrogated any such duty.
The Pi-hole works by keeping a list of malicious sites. When you load a web page, attempts to fetch content from those potentially malicious sites get blocked. It’s as simple as that. The Pi-hole only blocks content that is being served to you completely beyond the control of the publication you’re viewing. They cannot see it. They cannot approve it. They cannot in any way ensure that it isn’t going to mimic legitimate content. Hell, it can even be toxic — is as if they’re letting you supply your own ink for the ads, with no assurance that it isn’t addictive or mind-altering or lethally toxic. And online publications flock to put their imprimatur on content they cannot vet.
So much for credibility.
Oh, I forgot: they do make advertisers pinky-swear that they won’t do anything naughty. Advertisers.
What’s shocking is to see that almost every ad-supported publication has several to hundreds of these potential poisons that they push at you every time you try to read their publication: Pi-hole shows that they’re blocked, and they’re only blocked if they come from a site over which the publication has no control.
Some publications even try to shame you for trying to defend yourself against their chicanery:
PLEASE PLEASE DISABLE YOUR ADBLOCKER SO WE CAN LET SOMEBODY ATTACK YOU AND THEN PAY US A FEW CENTS
Shameful.
—2p