Advertisers and publishers call on Apple CEO Tim Cook to suspend the iPhone’s new Distraction Control feature

Some French advertising and media trade groups have urged Apple to reconsider its Distraction Control feature.

A group of French trade associations representing about 800 companies in the advertising and media sectors has sent an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, calling for the tech giant to suspend the rollout of the iPhone’s new “Distraction Control” feature.

Distraction Control, which became available with iOS 18 this fall, allows users of the iPhone’s Safari browser to hide elements on webpages like images, pop-ups, or ads. It’ll then remember those requests when the user revisits the page — though Apple says it doesn’t “permanently” hide elements of websites that frequently change, such as ads.

In the letter sent Thursday, a copy of which was seen by B-17, the French trade groups list three main concerns with the feature, having tested the beta and publicly released versions.

Apple didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In the letter, the groups raise concerns that users could hide websites’ consent management platforms — the tech that powers cookie consent pop-ups — which could put site owners at risk of noncompliance with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation.

This could also hamper publisher revenue, they say in the letter. European media companies are increasingly asking users to consent to being served personalized advertising — which is generally more lucrative than non-targeted ads — or else pay to access their content.

The French trade groups also say in the letter that they found in testing that — on some occasions — all ads on certain websites were hidden after the user chose to hide ads on one page on the site. (Apple has said the feature doesn’t “permanently hide ads.”)

The letter says this poses “an existential threat to the online advertising model, which underpins a significant portion of the internet’s economy.”

Apple, which regularly markets its products as pro-consumer and pro-privacy, has billed the feature as a way for users to avoid distractions on the web. It says on its website that while users can hide items they find distracting, they can also switch them back on at any time.

The letter also says that by allowing users to hide any content on a webpage — and in particular, the editorial content produced by media outlets — Distraction Control could fuel the “manipulation of information” and its spread across the internet.

While it’s possible to manipulate web pages using image-editing tools, Distraction Control makes it very easy to zap away certain content with a tap, take a screenshot, and share it, said Pierre Devoize, the deputy managing director of the digital marketing organization Alliance Digitale, one of the trade associations that cosigned the letter.

The letter was signed by Alliance Digitale, the press organization Alliance de la Presse d’Information Générale, the online publishing association Geste, the ad-agency body Syndicat des Régies Internet, the advertising group Union des Marques, and Udecam, the union of media buying and planning agencies.

The letter urges Apple to suspend the rollout of Distraction Control and to provide technical documentation about its functionalities and any planned updates.

The groups say in the letter that they are “actively considering all available legal resources” related to data protection, freedom of the press, intellectual-property rights, copyright and trademark law, and competition regulation.

The letter was also copied to several French ministers, the French competition authority, and the European Commission.

Publishers and ad companies have been hit by Apple software updates in the past

Earlier this year, the same French groups raised concerns to Apple about reports about an anticipated feature called “Web Eraser,” which they worried could hobble their ad revenue.

That letter was in response to reporting from AppleInsider that, citing people familiar with the matter, described the planned feature as allowing Safari users to remove content and have the browser recognize those choices — a description that bears a striking resemblance to Distraction Control. The UK publishing group News Media Association also sent a letter to Apple warning that such a tool would threaten the financial sustainability of journalism.

AppleInsider later reported Apple had changed the name of the feature from Web Eraser to Distraction Control and updated it to include a pop-up explaining that it would “not permanently remove ads.”

Publishers and ad companies have been hit by Apple software updates before. Its 2021 App Tracking Transparency update forced app owners to get explicit permission from users before tracking them across other apps and websites. Many users declined to be tracked, making it harder for developers, such as media publishers, to monetize their apps.

That followed another sweeping privacy change in 2017, Intelligent Tracking Prevention, which turned off the use of third-party tracking cookies in its Safari browser by default. Some publishers and adtech companies reported reductions in CPMs, the cost to target 1,000 impressions, almost immediately following the rollout.