Poor reception for Three’s ad-blocking

It's fair to say the decision of mobile operators Three UK and Three Italy to implement an ad-blocking system across its network met with a poor reception from the publishing industry.

Ad-blockers, unhindered by regulation, not only seriously hurt media giants such as Facebook and Google, and undermine the business models of news companies that depend on online ads for income, they effectively have the power to wipe out smaller digital publishers.

"Did you actually send me a press release about how you're helping people block ads, thereby killing the site you want to write about it," tweeted tech journalist Holly Brockwell, founder and editor of the site Gadgette.

Peter Robinson, the man behind music site Popjustice, went with "fantastic news, well done everyone, cheers @ThreeUK".

Although Three Ireland has said it has no timeline for the introduction of the ad-blocking software in this market, Three UK's statement did mention that its adoption of the system, from Israeli company Shine, would enable the "rapid roll-out of the technology to all other Three group operators".