We continue fighting against sponsored posts on Facebook. In 2020, we introduced machine learning to help improve our ability to block sponsored posts.
What are sponsored posts?
Facebook, along with many other social media platforms, shows both traditional advertisements and sponsored (or boosted) posts. While traditional ads can often be blocked, sponsored posts are much harder to filter out.
This is because sponsored posts are delivered through the same system as regular content, not through a separate advertising system like regular ads. Therefore, there’s no reliable way to distinguish a sponsored post from a real post, so we risk hiding normal content or breaking how the feed works.
Why do I see sponsored posts?
Facebook is an enormous company with multiple teams devoted to ad blocking circumvention. We block as much as we can on Facebook and other social media sites, but you will still see some sponsored posts.
So what can I do?
Our filter list authors make regular updates in response to Facebook advertising. Please make sure your filter lists are up to date so you get their latest changes.
AdBlock filter lists update automatically each time you open your browser (unless you've disabled this setting). If you notice your filter lists are out of date, you can manually update them.
Tip: Using AdBlock’s “block an ad on this page” wizard to hide sponsored posts might make the filter lists less effective. Use these steps to remove your manual blocks:
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Click the AdBlock icon in the browser toolbar, then the gear icon.
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On the Filter Lists tab, click Update Now. Wait for the lists to refresh.
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On the Customize tab, under Manually edit your filters, look for any lines that contain the word Facebook. If you see them, click Edit, delete the line of text, and click Save.
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Reload the Facebook page.