Theres a second use for Freedom, a simple app that lets you block distracting sites like Twitter for a few minutes, hours, or days. As the apps blog points out, Freedom also works as a clickbait blocker that hides the gross and misleading Around the Web links at the bottom of news articles (aka the chumbox).

This is useful if you dont use an ad blocker, but the principle is the same: Freedom blocks all traffic from a specified domain. This is impractical for blocking most ads, which are served from a huge and ever-changing set of different domains. But most Around the Web links route through a few top publishers, which you can easily turn into a blocklist in Freedom.

Windows/Mac/Android/iOS: What good is blocking distractions on your computer if you can pick up

To block these annoying links, just install Freedom ($29/year or $119 forever), open your dashboard, select Add a blocklist, and enter these domains:

Save the list, then click Add a session and block these sites as long as you want. As with any Freedom session, you can apply it to any of your iOS, Mac, or Windows devices. (While Freedom doesnt support Android, subscribers also get free premium access to Offtime for desktop and Android.)

That will wipe out the vast majority of Around the Web links across your entire device, including all your browsers and apps. Once you start a session, you can only access blocked content by deleting the blocklist. So like any Freedom block, run a brief test session first.

Freedoms main function, blocking distractions, is well worth the $29/year; I use it to automatically block Twitter at night. But if you dont want to pay that much, you can still block two domains with a free account. That will cover Outbrain and Taboola.

Or you can add the above domains to your usual ad blocker. Heres how to block domains in Adblock and Adblock Plus, and in uBlock Origin.

Around the Web links bring in a lot of revenue for content sites, which until recently included Lifehacker. But theyre also a big traffic driver for fake news, and they creep up in inappropriate places. Plus its unpleasant to scroll past a serious news item and see body-horror close-ups and lurid headlines about child actors. So break free.

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Block "Around the Web" Links With the Freedom App - Lifehacker