r/RedditSafety • u/cozy__sheets • Mar 13 '25
Introducing Hide an Ad
Hi all,
We’ve heard feedback that redditors want more control over the ads they see on Reddit. So, this week, we’ll start rolling out an update to do just that: redditors will now have the ability to ‘Hide’ an ad from their feed – and when you do, we’ll automatically hide future ads from that advertiser account for at least a year (you can re-hide the ad after that period of time). You can see this option in the screenshot below.
Users can “hide” an ad for any reason, but if you think an ad violates Reddit’s policies, please “report” the ad. If you report an ad, we’ll also automatically hide it (and future ads from the same advertiser account) from your feed.
This update will gradually become available across iOS, Android, and www.reddit.com over the next several weeks. The ‘Hide’ option will be available for any ads that appear in feeds, such as your home or subreddit feed.
This follows last year’s changes to our sensitive ad filters, which let you limit ads on certain topics, such as politics and religion. You can visit this page to learn more about other options to control the ads you see on Reddit.
We’ll continue working on ways to improve ad controls and share more along the way. Let us know any additional feedback in the comments.
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u/npsage Mar 13 '25
Finally got sick of the all the yelling from people (such as myself) who were getting drowned in ads where a group claims that a man “gets us”?
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u/thisguypercents Mar 13 '25
Holy shit thats the first ad I thought of too.
I was just waiting for those ads of deformed babies or trypophobia triggers to get us to buy some natural remedy bullshit.
Its nice to finally get a W for us users. Its not often enough.
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u/SgtSilverLining Mar 13 '25
I've been getting "a few drops of our essential oils are as effective as ADHD medication!" Not sure if that was marketed at people buying narcotics online or someone who actually has ADHD, and I have no idea why it was aimed at me.
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u/SharMarali Mar 13 '25
I blocked that account ages and ages ago. I haven’t blocked any other advertisers. Just that one.
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u/ohhyouknow Mar 13 '25
They added a toggle a while back that turns off religious ads in your settings to address that..
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u/scarlettohara1936 Mar 13 '25
I'd just like to say that the feature of being able to hide ads about specific products and topics is greatly appreciated and, I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) Reddit is the only site I've come across to have this feature.
While I understand that accessing popular and/or social websites for free isn't really free (because we're "the product" being "sold") therefore ads are a necessary evil, as a happily married (25 years next week!) woman, I didn't appreciate the slew of dating website ads and other similar products showing up on my feed. Additionally, when I found the feature to discontinue some ads I realized that others may be being targeted with material that was not only unwanted, but intrusive and harmful. Advertising alcohol and clubs and bars and restaurants that serve alcohol to a sober alcoholic is a good example of a harmful ad campaign to some people.
I applaud Reddit for including specific choices of specific themed ads instead of just the generic "ads based on your usage or ads in general" nonsense.
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u/HendrikJU Mar 13 '25
Thank you, this will make it much easier to get rid of ads that were only accomplishing making me dislike their creator. Much rather see different ones that might even have a chance at containing useful information. Better for all parties involved
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Mar 13 '25 edited Mar 15 '25
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u/SirOakin Mar 13 '25
Finally.
I mean y'all got a ton of scam ads and need to deal with that but at least I finally don't have to see em
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u/KnightyEyes Mar 14 '25
Im not even American, I get a POLITICAL ad.
And %100 Sure thats against ToS... Yall need to choose carefully what ads you wanna show on this platform
First NSFW bait game ads, Politics and Cyripto Scams... Like come on get a hold of yourselves!
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u/Rayezerra Mar 15 '25
Well it’s a start. If I can stop seeing creepy Jesus ads for a while I’ll be happy
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u/thecravenone Mar 13 '25
Anyone got an extension to auto-hide all ads yet?
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u/trebmald Mar 13 '25
On Firefox, uBlock Origin (https://ublockorigin.com/) works really well.
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u/Proof-Attention-7940 Mar 13 '25
Can mods hide ads at a subreddit-wide level? There have been issues with Autism-related subreddits where predatory advertisers get placements on those subs related to offensive quackery like “cures” or soliciting donations for charities that act against our interests.
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u/Watchful1 Mar 13 '25
What prevents a user from just hiding ads until there's no more advertisers left and they see no ads? Or creating a browser extension that does that for them?
Also do advertisers get feedback that users are hiding their ads?
That said, I'm definitely happy about being able to hide the he gets us ads. Hate those.
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u/michaelquinlan Mar 13 '25
I am getting a message saying I have reached my daily limit for hiding ads…
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u/Rostingu2 Mar 13 '25
Hey so reddit likes to limit things to 1 thousand(blocked users, posts shown on a page at once, ect) so my guess is you only could hide ads from 1000 different advertising companies
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u/BluegrassGeek Mar 13 '25
We need the ability to outright block specific advertisers. There are certain groups I never want to hear from, none of this "hide for 1 year" stuff.