Apple puts Safari Web Eraser feature on hold after publisher backlash

News media bodies rally over content blocker seen in Safari updates

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Image: Apple

It seems very likely that Apple is not going to launch its so-called Web Eraser for Safari after all. The feature allowed users to delete elements of a Web page, such as images and advertisements, and would remember what content was removed for subsequent visits. Advertisers protested in force.

AppleInsider revealed last month that Safari would get two major new features: An intelligent search providing an AI-generated summary of Web page content. That component has indeed been announced under the name Highlights.

Secondly was Web Eraser, a content-blocker already found in pre-release development versions of Safari 18, but Web Eraser no longer appeared in the announcements a week ago.

It is possible that Apple has succumbed to pressure from major publishers. The British News Media Association and a group of French publishers immediately sounded the alarm.

News Media Association represents more than 900 different national, regional and local titles, including The Times, The Daily Mail, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. Safari accounts for about a third of the Internet browser market in the UK. An open letter stated that Web Eraser was akin to an adblocker, which they viewed as “a blunt instrument that frustrates the ability of content creators to sustainably fund their work. The letter also added that Web Eraser “could cause consumers to miss out on important information that would otherwise have been very useful to them.

The French group includes the online publishing association Geste, the press trade group APIG, the advertising agency association SRI, the digital marketing body Alliance Digitale, the trade association for media agencies UDECAM and the advertiser association Union des Marques.

Their letter stated that Web Eraser “raises numerous questions, particularly about legal and editorial responsibilities that Apple has yet to respond to,” and that the feature would jeopardise ad sales at an already difficult time.

According to the group’s estimates, Safari accounts for a quarter of all Web traffic in France, while the number for mobile devices rises to 90%.

So serious were the concerns of French publishers that they simultaneously sent copies to government officials. Among them the French Minister of Culture, the head of the French competition authority, and Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for internal markets.

Apple previously made decisions that went against the grain of marketers by introducing App Tracking Transparency (ATT). a privacy feature on the iPhone and iPad. This requires developers and advertisers to ask permission if they want to track your activity in other companies’ apps and websites.

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