uBlock Origin is no longer supporting Facebook ad-blocking, and Edge is incompatible with uBlock Origin entirely. Here are three great browser alternatives and a privacy-focused one from Europe
Two separate pieces of news for ad-blocking just landed in the same week, and together they say a lot about where browser control is heading.
First, the developer of uBlock Origin announced that the team is no longer going to chase Facebook's constant filter-evasion tricks, describing Facebook as a "disgusting anti-user site". Facebook has repeatedly changed how it identifies and serves ads in order to defeat open-source blockers, monitoring projects like uBlock Origin and adjusting its code to bypass their filters. After years of this cat-and-mouse game, the small uBlock team decided that it was no longer worth the constant maintenance just for one platform.
Secondly, and more importantly: Microsoft Edge has started to disable Manifest V2 extensions by default in the Canary, Dev and Beta channels this month. The full rollout to consumers will be completed by the end of 2026, with enterprise devices following in early 2027. uBlock Origin has been installed over 13 million times on Edge, but there is no Manifest V3 version because MV3 removes the Web Request API that the full version depends on to work effectively. Chrome killed Manifest V2 entirely in mid-2025 and will have removed the last MV2 extensions from its store by 31 August this year. Edge held out for longer, but is now following the same route.
If you use uBlock Origin's full filtering power on Edge (or any other Chromium-based browser), the best option is to switch to a different browser, since all Chromium-based browsers are heading towards the same restriction eventually.
Firefox remains the safest option since Mozilla is committed to providing full Manifest V2 support, regardless of Chrome and Edge's actions. It also runs on Gecko, one of the few major rendering engines that is not controlled by Google.
If you want a more modern interface alongside the same privacy protections, Zen Browser is a good European option: it's free and open source, and is built directly on Firefox's Gecko engine rather than Chromium. It also adds features like Workspaces and Split View without compromising the underlying privacy protections.
Another Firefox-based alternative worth considering is Waterfox: it's open-source with no telemetry by default, and includes Oblivious DNS support to make it harder for your ISP to track which sites you visit.
All three keep uBlock Origin working exactly as it always has.
