The internet is creating an open-source revolution — a bottoms-up change in human habits across the globe, driven by hundreds of thousands of technologists, content creators, and business leaders to create nearly unlimited entertainment, news, information, commerce and services unimaginable in other eras.
But something insidious has begun to threaten the free web as we know it.
Armed with powerful tools that block advertising from appearing on websites, new and old players in the ad-blocking and mobile operator industry are threatening to strip ads at the “network level” from websites, in some cases seeking revenue-sharing agreements from the very companies whose ads are being blocked.
What does that mean for consumers? Simple. Ad blocking at the network level undercuts consumers’ ability to control the content they see and don’t see, which is a bedrock principle of the world wide web. Read more in Advertising Age from Dave Grimaldi, Executive Vice President of IAB.
Read: The Future of the Internet