Ad blocking at Free: are we all going to die?

Published on 4 January 2013

This is the moment where I'm going to give you my take on Free's #AdGate affair. Calmly.

– What are we talking about?

The ISP Free ADSL just updated its subscribers' Freeboxes, enabling an ad blocker by default, right at the router level.

– What does that mean?

It means that when you connect to the Internet from your Freebox, all advertising will be blocked, whether on your computers, your tablets and phones (provided the thing works properly, which doesn't seem like a sure bet).

– Why is it a disgrace?

It's a disgrace because if the Internet is so wonderful and so free today, it's thanks to the advertising that supports webmasters and the people who write on the Internet. You no longer have to shell out 2 euros for your daily newspaper, no, all you have to do is go to your favorite website, and there, magic, by displaying a few ads, you keep the site alive without spending a cent, it's beautiful and powerful. That's what you're going to read everywhere, on every blog and site that lives off ads, and it'll be true. But not pushing the analysis a little further is absolute hypocrisy.

– Selective guilt-tripping.

What do you do with your Internet access? Really? I'll tell you:

• You download series, all the time, and even movies sometimes, that's theft, piracy. Full stop.

• You watch porn, generally free, totally pirated, same thing, that's theft, theft of movies and dirty pictures sure, but it's pure and simple theft.

• You download music, you look for tricks to avoid getting caught, because going to buy a CD at the Fnac for 8 euros pisses you off, so you steal, you pirate. The music industry is doing badly, because of you (and also because of them, sure).

When you do all that, you're stealing from people, you're stopping companies from making money, from hiring, you're doing crap to society and humanity 3/4 of the time you spend on the Internet. And you know what? I'm the first to pull all these stunts myself, I've even pirated software or comics, even though I've also worked in publishing, if that's not a disgrace. Because pirating, streaming, not paying, not bothering, it's cool, it's easy, it feels amazing. Isn't it?

And you know what? Browsing the Internet without a single ad is total bliss. This feature over at Free, the one you're comparing to censorship, it's just magnificent. An ad-free Internet is the best of the best, it's even better than downloaded series or free porn, it's just a faster, more ergonomic, smoother, cooler Internet. It's AWESOME. It's no coincidence that you've already used AdBlock at home, and that yeah, when you turn it on, it's cool. Why would it be cool for you, and not for the general public?

An ad-free Internet is awesome, and it's also a nightmare. My own professional activity is massively based on the online advertising market. With a feature like this, Free is directly endangering my own professional future. Seriously, it's really scary. But you know what? Despite that, I find it bold, bold is really gutsy of them (assuming they own it, which I doubt).

You scream censorship because you have no guts, you scream censorship the way the music majors brandish legal threats against pirates, you scream censorship because you're incapable of questioning yourselves. Someone touches your livelihood, ads, and there suddenly, it's a catastrophe. But when Free sticks a Torrent client in its Freebox, nobody screams, huh, that one's just TOO COOL. When Free lets you screw the music or film industry, it's COOL. When Free touches your Adsense income, IT'S A DISASTER.

Those who'll come out best from the potential collapse of online advertising aren't the ones screaming censorship and insulting Xavier Niel, but the ones with the audacity and intelligence to find other models, to offer an alternative to advertising, subscriptions, sponsorships, I don't know. Search instead of shouting.

Yeah, this whole thing is a real pain, but no, dammit, it has nothing to do with a Chinese-style Internet, as this pitiful article over at Numerama implies. It just has to do with the fragility of our models, our dependence on ad networks, on audience, on Google, and now on the decisions of certain ISPs. But no, it isn't censorship.

Photo credit: AI-generated illustration

By Paingout