Marco Arment, the developer behind Peace, an ad-blocking app for iOS 9 has had a change of heart.
Just two days after launching Peace, he has pulled it from the App Store.
Ad blockers, unless they’re fine-tuned to allow ads from sites that publish them respectfully and block advertising on those that do not, they can unfairly affect those who rely on advertising to keep a website afloat.
In Arment’s case, his app rocketed to the top of the App Store charts, and he undoubtedly got quite a bit of feedback about his work.
“Achieving this much success with Peace just doesn’t feel good, which I didn’t anticipate, but probably should have. Ad blockers come with an important asterisk: while they do benefit a ton of people in major ways, they also hurt some, including many who don’t deserve the hit,” Arment wrote in a blog post today.
“Peace required that all ads be treated the same — all-or-nothing enforcement for decisions that aren’t black and white,” he continued.
“This approach is too blunt, and Ghostery and I have both decided that it doesn’t serve our goals or beliefs well enough. If we’re going to effect positive change overall, a more nuanced, complex approach is required than what I can bring in a simple iOS app.”
The app relied on Ghostery’s database to block ads on Apple’s mobile browser. Though Peace did allow you to whitelist publisher sites if want to see the ads—like Arment’s own Marco.org—it doesn’t allow you to whitelist specific advertising publishers.
Take, for example, ads from advertising publisher The Deck that run on Arment’s website.
Via PC Mag
