Independent · Established 2017
Protecting the online user experience
People install ad blockers because of ads that take over the screen, follow them across the web, and slow everything down. The Acceptable Ads Committee exists to keep those ads out. We set the Acceptable Ads Standard: the research-based criteria that decide which ads are respectful enough to be shown to people who use an ad blocker but still want the sites they visit to survive.
Governance
Independent by design
The Committee is structured so that no single company can decide what is acceptable. Its members come from three coalitions: user advocates, independent experts and researchers, and the businesses that fund, deliver, and depend on advertising, including the publishers whose sites people rely on. No coalition can change the Standard on its own, and every proposed change is published for public comment before it is adopted. That structure protects the integrity of the Standard and is written into the Committee’s bylaws.
How the Committee works
The Standard
A standard built on evidence
The Acceptable Ads Standard sets out the criteria ads must meet to be shown to people who use an ad blocker while helping fund the online content they value. It covers where ads can appear, how much space they can take up, how they must be labelled, and how they must behave.
The Acceptable Ads Committee defines these criteria through research into what users find acceptable and revisits them as the web and users’ needs change. Participating ad blockers use the Standard to determine which ads can be shown to users who choose to allow Acceptable Ads. Its requirements cannot be bypassed: only ads that meet the criteria are eligible to be shown.
Advertising helps keep content free
Someone makes the websites you love
The recipe site you cook from. The sports stats site you check at halftime. The local news site that covers your city council. Behind each one are people whose work depends on advertising revenue. When that revenue disappears, a website may have to put its content behind a paywall or close altogether.
You should always be free to block every ad. Every ad blocker that supports Acceptable Ads gives you that choice. You can also allow a limited set of respectful, clearly labelled ads to help fund the content you enjoy. Only ads that meet the Acceptable Ads Standard are eligible to be shown.
This gives you an ad-light browsing experience while keeping you in control and helping publishers earn revenue from their work. The Acceptable Ads Committee sets the Standard, and no single coalition can change it on its own.
If you run ads, publish content, build the technology in between, study how people experience the web, or speak for the people who use it, the Acceptable Ads Standard affects you. The Committee is where those perspectives sit at the same table and decide together. Membership is open, and every member has a voice. Elected representatives vote on changes to the Standard.
Join the committee