• by Gavin O'Malley , August 9, 2016

Whether or not they employ ad-blockers, desktop users will now be subjected to every ad that Facebook wants them to see.

Increasingly threatened by the ad-averting software, the social giant announced plans to change the way ads load into its flagship Web property, on Tuesday.

“Facebook is … free … and ads support our mission of giving people the power to share and making the world more open and connected,” Andrew Bosworth, VP of ads and business platform at Facebook, notes in a new blog post.

Industry leaders are cheering Facebook for taking a stand on ad-blockers.

“Facebook should be applauded for its leadership on preserving a vibrant value exchange with its users,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB.

“Its decision to respect advertising as an essential ingredient in connecting users worldwide is spot-on and should be replicated across the free and open Internet,” Rothenberg added.

To appease potentially frustrated users, Facebook is offering them more ways to control the ads that they encounter on the platform.

“If you don’t want to see ads about a certain interest like travel or cats, you can remove the interest from your ad preferences,” Bosworth promised.

Additionally, Facebook will now let users block ads from businesses or organizations that have added them to their customer lists.

Along with users, analysts say the changes should also benefit brands.

“Marketers will have better ability to target the right audiences, meaning their ads theoretically are more optimized and effective,” Jessica Liu, an analyst at Forrester Research, said on Tuesday.

The change comes amid a continued rise in ad-blocking software, which threatens the business models of digital publishers and social platforms.

Last year, more than 198 million consumers around the world were active users of ad blockers which represented a 41% increase, year-over-year -- according to analytics firm PageFair. As such, ad-blocking technology cost publishers nearly $22 billion, last year.

Consumers largely blame disruptive viewing experiences for their embrace of ad-blockers.

Indeed, the main reasons cited for using ad blockers include avoiding disruptive ads (69%), ads that slow down their browsing experience (58%) and security risks (56%), according to new research from Ipsos, which was conducted on Facebook’s behalf.

Of note, Facebook now makes most of its profits from mobile, which is still largely immune to ad-blocking software.

In fact, mobile ad revenue represented about 84% of ad revenue for the second quarter -- up from about 76% of ad revenue in the second quarter of 2015 -- Facebook reported last month.