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# The problem with ad blocker blocking
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2016/10/the-problem-with-ad-blocker-blocking/
- Published: 2016-10-10T12:10:10.000Z
- Updated: 2016-10-10T12:10:10.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: ad blockers, advertising, monetisation, publishing strategy

Here’s a photo of my morning workstation:

![iPad and Mac in ad-blocking scandal](https://i1.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2016/10/fullsizeoutput_105a2.jpeg?resize=960%2C512&ssl=1 "fullsizeoutput_105a2.jpeg")

On the left, my iPad happily showing a news story about the presidential debates from last night – and [the #kenbone hashtag ](http://deadline.com/2016/10/ken-bone-emerges-as-winner-of-hillary-vs-donald-ii-1201833855/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)in particular.

On the right, my MacBook Pro showing the same story – except it’s been blocked by anti-adblocking tech.

This is what is says:

![Ad Blocker Blocked](https://i1.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2016/10/ad-blocker-blcoker.png?resize=641%2C293&ssl=1 "ad-blocker-blcoker.png")

The irony?

The iPad has an ad blocker installed.

The Mac *doesn’t*.

In their haste to punish people blocking ads, *Deadline* is actually excluding genuine visitors. And therein lies the problem with “ad blocker sniffing” tech – it doesn’t always work, and sometimes it throws false positives. And it inadvertently left me wondering if maybe I should have an ad blocker on my Mac, too.

This arms race will not end well for publishers.