According to Neowin, the popular ad-blocking extension uBlock Origin Lite has been removed from the official Firefox add-on marketplace due to a contentious situation that has developed between its developer, Raymond Hill, and Mozilla. The issue began in early September when Mozilla unexpectedly flagged all versions of uBlock Origin Lite for breaching Firefox policies.
The add-on faced accusations of collecting user data and raising privacy concerns—an issue that is particularly significant for Firefox users. In defense of his extension, Hill remarked, “It takes only a few seconds for anyone who has even a basic understanding of JavaScript to see the raised issues make no sense.”
Despite Mozilla later admitting in an email that they had erred regarding the extension, Hill has opted to halt development of uBlock Origin Lite for Firefox. He has cited the “hostile” and “nonsensical” nature of Mozilla’s add-on review process as his reasoning for discontinuing 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. Every time I investigate the matter, I only conclude that the feedback from Mozilla’s Add-ons Team has been nonsensical and hostile, and on principle, I refuse to engage with this review process.”
As a consequence, uBlock Origin Lite is now permanently removed from the Firefox Marketplace. The last approved self-hosted version—uBOLite_2024.9.22.986—will remain available for download on GitHub, but no additional versions will be released moving forward.