Facebook is putting its foot down on ad blockers

Facebook is now giving users more control over what types of ads they are exposed to on the social networking site.  Facebook's updated "Ad Preferences" panel which lets you the user opt out of ads related to a particular interest, such as "travel" or "cats," or those from a specific company or organization. It also shows you a run-down of businesses that have added you to a customer list.

Facebook activated these new features after enlisting research firm Ipsos Connect to survey 2,000 people across six countries about ad blocking. 

The use of ad blockers has soared in popularity worldwide over the past few years as the software becomes easier to use and consumers, more aware of the extensive tracking capabilities of online advertising. This trend is worrying for online publishers, who see the spread of such tools as an existential threat. 

But Facebook has remained mostly insulated from any serious harm because the vast majority of its ad revenue, now comes from mobile users. There, ad blocking has yet to really catch on, and Facebook's app is immune to most ad blockers.

Facebook has acknowledged in a financial filing in January 2016 that desktop ad blocking has impacted its revenue "from time to time."

Most ad blocking companies also accept money in one form or another in return for whitelisting ads on a particular site, a practice the industry trade group Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has equated to an "old-fashioned extortion racket."

Major companies like Microsoft, Google and content farm Taboola have reportedly paid such fees to German software developer Eyeo, which runs the hugely popular service AdBlock Plus which operates a master whitelist contracted out to at least a handful of other ad blocking apps.

It will be interesting to see how Facebook's new move will impact online ad  revenue for digital publics accross the globe.