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China Bans Ad Blocking (adexchanger.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the foiled-plans dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Two weeks ago, China released its first ever set of digital ad regulations that impacted Chinese market leaders like Baidu and Alibaba. "But hidden among (the new regulations) is language that would seem to all but ban ad blocking," wrote Adblock Plus (ABP) operations manager Ben Williams in a blog post Wednesday. The new regulations prohibit "the use of network access, network devices, applications, and the disruption of normal advertising data, tampering with or blocking others doing advertising business (or) unauthorized loading the ad." There is also a clause included that addresses tech companies that "intercept, filter, cover, fast-forward and [impose] other restrictions" on online ad campaigns. ABP general counsel Kai Recke said in an email to AdExchanger that the Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) has much more control over the market than its otherwise equal U.S. counterpart, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). "After all it looks like the Chinese government tries to get advertising more under their control and that includes that they want to be the only ones to be allowed to remove or alter ads," said Recke. "Ad-block users are a distinct audience and they require a distinct strategy and ways to engage them," said ABP CEO Till Faida at AdExchanger's Clean Ads I/O earlier this year. "They have different standards they've expressed for accessing them, and advertising has to reflect that."

3 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Well, I never thought I'd say this, EVER... by behrooz0az · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think APK hosts file generator may actually work here.

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    Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion. -- Spazmania (174582)
  2. The real reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So is this just a tacit admission that AdBlockers are inadvertently screening out some of the government surveillance tools?

  3. If the TPP is past, this will come to America by Nyder · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If the TPP is past, Corporations will be able to sue Governments for getting in the way of their making profit. So you can damn well bet that the advertisement networks will sue to get any type of ad blocking banned. And they will be backed by most other corporations also, so ya, this will be coming to America.

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    Be seeing you...