Eyeo, the company behind the Adblock Plus, the most popular ad blocking software which is currently used on over 100m devices, has launched a beta version of its ad tech supply side platform which will enable publishers to programmatically offer advertising.

The Acceptable Ads Platform is a result of a partnership between Adblock Plus and ComboTag, and is an extension of Adblock Plus existing program that enables publishers to whitelist their sites with the ad blocker if their advertising meets certain criteria.

The interactive platform aims to provide publishers and bloggers with a marketplace of pre-whitelisted ads that they can drag and drop onto their sites. All ads meet the companys Acceptable Ads criteria for size and labelling, and can only be placed in areas website deemed acceptable.

By whitelisting the infrastructure instead of individual ads, the platform can now be served by several demand sources, with DSPs and demand partners able to acquire impressions from participating publishers using programmatic buying.

“The Acceptable Ads Platform helps publishers who want to show an alternative, non-intrusive ad experience to users with ad blockers by providing them with a tool that lets them implement Acceptable Ads themselves,” said Till Faida, co-founder of Adblock Plus.

For consumers who use Adblock Plus, the technology will still block all non-compliant ads, and even Acceptable Ads can be switched off if users choose to do so, in theory eliminating all advertising.

“There are two ecosystems of online consumers out there right now: the one composed of people who block intrusive ads and the other where people do not,” said Faida. “The Acceptable Ads Platform lets publishers reach the former group without changing anything about how theyre reaching the latter. Weve been waiting years for the ad-tech industry to do something consumer-friendly like this, so finally we got tired of waiting and decided to just do it ourselves.”

Adblock Plus and Eyeo have been criticised heavily in the past for a lack of transparency over how their Acceptable Ads program judges advertising formats, with Randall Rotherberg, president and CEO of the IAB, going so far as to label the company “unethical” and “immoral”.

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