We’ve heard you. Many of you have told us you avoid clicking through to our site from Facebook, Threads or X because the first thing you are greeted with are large, intrusive full-page ads that are difficult to close – even if you’re using an ad blocker.
First and most importantly: those ads are not ours, and neither are they placed there by us.
What’s happening?
- These particular ads only appear on mobile phones
- They only appear when clicking a link from Facebook, Threads or X
- They do not appear when visiting from:
- Google searches
- Email notifications
- Direct bookmarks
- Some readers have even reported being redirected to an ad when clicking “Donate” instead of PayPal – something we take extremely seriously.
This strongly suggests the problem lies outside our content, likely involving:
- A third-party script injected at hosting level
- A compromised plugin or service
- Or ad injection occurring between social media platforms and mobile browsers
We are actively investigating all of these possibilities.
What we’re doing about it
- Running systematic plugin checks
- Working with our host to identify any injected scripts
- Auditing redirects and mobile-only behaviour
- Tightening security and monitoring traffic patterns
This takes time, but we are on it.
What you can do right now
Until the issue is fully resolved, the best way to avoid these ads entirely is to subscribe to the site and read articles via our email notifications. Subscription is free.
Links opened from email do not trigger the intrusive ads.
We know this is frustrating. It frustrates us too. Traffic has dropped because of something outside our control, and we appreciate your patience while we fix it properly.
Thank you for sticking with us – and for letting us know when something isn’t right.
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Sorry but I am accessing from an email on, in this case, my iPhone, and I am still getting them.
RC, these particular ads take up the whole page as soon as you enter the site.
My two bob’s worth… I read The AIMN on a desktop computer. I have ad-blocking software (Adblock Plus) installed on the browser along with another plugin called NoScript. Result of these two additions to the browser? Zero advertising, always.
Cheap advice… use a computer to access The AIMN.
I was being bombarded with ads on AIMN [no other sites] many of which were Ads by Google and all of which were on my browser – Google gives an opportunity to report the ads either as inappropriate or repetitive but that didn’t stop them.
I upgraded my internet security but that didn’t help until I subscribed to Total Ad Block which was free initially and it worked. They now want to charge me for my subscription so I have to consider that option.
Terry, we suspect our web host might be the culprit. Our research has revealed that this particular host has history of “injecting” ads on websites they host so they can make a quid on the side. If it is confirmed, we’ll change host when our renewal is due in December.
Personally, I lobotomised my “smart” phone back to basically being a plain old mobile and use my PC for anything that involves the ‘net. When there are updates available for the mobile I use the home wi-fi. Not about to change that system for the foreseeable future.
The dilemma for us is that without the ads it would be difficult to keep the site open. It’s the ads and donations that keep it afloat.
But we also want people to enjoy their experience here. If we can locate the source of these rogue ads – and knock them on the head – we will go a long way to ensuring that.
AD-blockers.
They do work, but watch for the whining and thuggy nonsense from some sites ordering people to switch off the ad blocker.
Why do they think I got one in the first place?
SBS led the charge on this.
An old computer does the job.
Thanks for the heads-up Michael.
As far as the ads go, I’m in Camp Kanga and have no problem.
One curiosity tho’ is that I’ve not received email notifications of new posts for the last several days. Has anyone else experienced this?
I’ve looked into that, Julian.
It appears that the number of emails we send out each day (as high as 30,000) is above what the plan allows, so the system is leaving names off.
On Saturday I’ll look at upgrading, which hopefully should fix it.
Meanwhile, a sort of ad has appeared on my computer lines, from or about a moron known to me, a D Tehan, conservative anus with a larynx. Tehan asserts, though incapable, that his perspective is universally correct. The notorious Skysty arsefarce will agree, after all, they discovered the magic of printing pure dogshit as some gospel.., media maggoty misfits…a clapped out mediaeval primitive romanist iggy is unfit to be in public life nagging others while drenched in idiotic superstition, crippling, anti-intellectual and thoroughly uncivilised. Tehan is a comprehensive repeat failure with no record.
I read you through email and no other sites and I get those ads too.
Sometimes the ads have been offensive
Sorry to tell you.
Thanks for your great work
We have confirmed it’s a targeted attack/malware on our site, not a general hack. The malware is specifically checking the referrer header (the site where the click came from) and only activating for traffic from specific social platforms (Facebook, X, Threads), while sparing others (Bluesky).
All we have to do now is identify the culprit and do what is necessary to take it out of action.
How long will this take? Hopefully not too long.
Thanks for the reply to my earlier post. I have been reluctant to use an ad-blocker because I recognise that some of the sites I support rely on ads for their survival. Some I pay for, some I access free. Athough I would lIke to be able to pay for all, the pension imposes some limits.
Advertising is the bane of modern life. People trying to sell you things you don’t need don’t want and probably can’t afford. The advertising market thinks the target audience have the IQ of a very slow 12 year old boy, so the ads are crafted to suit.
The TV is so chock full of idiotic ads that make it not worth the effort to watch which sort off defeats the purpose.
There is a growing industry of ad blockers dedicated to blocking the ad industry.
Microsoft has gotten itself in deep shit because of advertising on its Windows 11 platform.
The OS is nothing more than spyware and ads and the great unwashed are revolting.
Brave is widely used as a web browser because advertising is blocked automatically.
Other web browsers have a large variety of ad blocker add-ons that effectively shut out the crap.
Subscription is the next iteration, you have to pay extra to have the ads blocked.
You sometimes have to expend time and effort to block out the avalanche of mind numbing, inane, stupid, crass, insensitive shit ads which nobody wants.
Mostly people just zone out, but It seems to me society is fast approaching a critical mass of advertising. What happens then is anybody’s guess.
Mizhael Taylor, I bleed for you.
Ive spent the best part of xmas /NY coping with outside inteferences and scamming. Ive said it before, tech was good when it was new and inviting.
But it only seems an electronic panopticon these days.
I mainly only post comments on AIMN & Bluesky & The Conversation (bless y’all), very rarely on FB, & I do not dwell on FB. I have ditched all my msm subscriptions (get all/any msm stuff via Apple built-in ‘News’ – both PC & iPhone – it’s not invasive), and if I MUST read a subscriber only article, I try via screen dumps through ‘Archive.today’
Some may accuse me of being ‘stingy’, and / or not ‘playing the game’ … Oh really! I play it my way 😎. And I do donate to independent media / orgs as and when I’m inclined and can afford it.
I have a Mac and an iphone (both fairly aged), and have taken the following steps and they work:
1 in Google settings turn off all tracking and the like (essential), then
2 never log into my Google a-c (essential)
3 only use Google with Safari browser (& adblockers) if I HAVE to
4 main browser Firefox (open source by Mozilla) with built-in tracker-blocker turned on, blocking specifically tracking by Meta/Facebook (essential as it is extremely invasive)
5 never use Google (Alphabet) on Firefox instead use ‘DuckDuckGo’ search engine – privately owned. No tracking, no data collection, full privacy & very effective.
6 never use browser platforms by Google (Alphabet) or Microsoft (essential)
7 have my own domain with mail server where it is easy to block occasional invaders – it’s important to be diligent blocking unsolicited junk mail / spam. Albeit there are other effective mail server services that don’t require one’s own domain. Once again never use mail server services associated with Google (Alphabet) or Microsoft (essential).
8 if I think it’s absolutely necessary (rarely) I use a VPN
9 every week or two I clear all my caches (essential), and
10 similarly, I run a Free malicious software scanner/fixer like ‘Malwarebytes’ (essential).
11 do a full bootable back-up of my entire PC system (automatically) at the same time ea week (it runs in the background)
Easy-peasy. It takes a while to set up, and is comparatively inexpensive. I set it up some years ago so my business was streamlined without digital interference. Now as a pensioner, I keep my eye on it all, trying to minimize costs and maximize effectiveness.
I very rarely get invaded by ads or junk mail, but if that should happen, it’s easy for me to take action.
I hazard a guess that it’s all big tech, as they manipulate and control the works! Google and YouTube are the worst.
Ad-blocker is a dream however mine’s not currently working, I need to rebuild this bloody computer and that was done in 2022, so a better option this time and more capacity as well as repair all the software issues in addition to the mother board, and both hard drives!