Neowin has reported that the widely-used ad blocker, uBlock Origin Lite, has been pulled from Firefox’s official add-on marketplace due to an ongoing dispute between its developer, Raymond Hill, and Mozilla. The conflict began in early September when Mozilla flagged every version of uBlock Origin Lite for allegedly violating Firefox’s policies.
The accusations against uBlock Origin Lite included claims of user data collection and concerns about privacy—a major reason many users choose the Firefox browser. In response to these allegations, Hill stated, “It takes only a few seconds for anyone who has even a basic understanding of JavaScript to see the raised issues make no sense.”
Though Mozilla later acknowledged their mistake in an email regarding the extension, Hill has chosen to discontinue development of uBlock Origin Lite for Firefox. He cited the “hostile” and “nonsensical” nature of Mozilla’s add-on approval process as his primary reason for withdrawing support:
“The Firefox version of uBO Lite will cease to exist; I am dropping support because of the added burden of dealing with the AMO’s nonsensical and hostile review process. Each time I examine the situation, I can only conclude that feedback from the Mozilla Add-ons Team has been nonsensical and hostile. As a matter of principle, I won’t partake in this hostile review process.”
As a result, uBlock Origin Lite has been permanently removed from the Firefox Marketplace. The final approved self-hosted version—uBOLite_2024.9.22.986—will still be accessible as a release package on GitHub, but no further updates will be provided.
