Google Automatically Disables uBlock Origin Adblocker on Google Chrome

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On March 4, 2025, Google Chrome automatically disabled uBlock Origin, the most popular adblocker to date, for all users as part of shift to the Manifest V3 version of Chrome.

Background

Released in 2014, uBlock Origin is a comprehensive adblocker that browser users may install as an extension to avoid advertisements while browsing the web. Given the ever present nature of advertisements on websites, uBlock Origin provides users with a faster and less obtrusive web browsing experience.

Introduction of Manifest V3

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In 2018, Google announced that it would begin a shift to a new version of Google Chrome extension manifest called Manifest V3, or MV3 for short, "to create stronger security, privacy, and performance guarantees." In 2020, Google released a beta version of MV3, and by early 2022, Google Chrome disallowed users to release extensions on the Chrome Web Store that were only incompatible with MV3.

Google's response

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Consumer response

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There are doubts that MV3 does much for the security, since "when a malicious extension sneaks through the security review process, it is usually interested in simply observing the conversation between your browser and whatever websites you visit". And to quote Firefox’s Add-On Operations Manager: "they can still do that with the current webRequest API that is not blocking".

Users can still browse the web without ads and with reduced tracking by switching to a browser which continues to support Manifest V2 and the full version of uBlock Origin, such as Mozilla Firefox or the Chromium-based Brave.