pixiebrix · twschiller · Jun 3, 2026 · Jun 3, 2026 · Jun 3, 2026 · Jun 3, 2026
diff --git a/demo-site/src/components/AdvertorialCard.tsx b/demo-site/src/components/AdvertorialCard.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 PixieBrix, Inc.
+// Licensed under PolyForm Shield 1.0.0 — see LICENSE.
+
+// Native advertorial fixture for demoing the `disguised-ad-flag` rule.
+// Renders an article-shaped card (heading + image + body prose + read-more
+// link) with a visible disclosure label, deliberately *without* the
+// network-level markers (`adsbygoogle`, `data-ad-slot`) that `ads-hide`
+// would catch. The whole point of the rule is to handle these
+// publisher-rendered advertorials that EasyList can't see.
+
+interface AdvertorialCardProps {
+  // Label text rendered above the headline. Provide the exact phrasing
+  // (case included) so the demo exercises each detection branch:
+  //   - "Sponsored"                          standalone form
+  //   - "[Ad]"                                bracket form
+  //   - "Paid for and presented by <brand>"  suffix form
+  label: string;
+  headline: string;
+  body: string;
+  brand: string;
+}
+
+export default function AdvertorialCard({
+  label,
+  headline,
+  body,
+  brand,
+}: AdvertorialCardProps) {
+  return (
+    <article className="advertorial-card flex flex-col rounded border border-stone-200 bg-white p-4">
+      <span className="mb-1 inline-block w-fit text-[10px] font-semibold uppercase tracking-wider text-stone-500">
+        {label}
+      </span>
+      <h3 className="text-base font-semibold text-slate-900">{headline}</h3>
+      <img
+        src="https://placehold.co/600x320/eef2f7/64748b?text=Article+Hero"
+        alt=""
+        loading="lazy"
+        className="mt-2 aspect-[16/9] w-full rounded object-cover"
+      />
+      <p className="mt-2 text-sm text-stone-700">{body}</p>
+      <a
+        href={`https://example.com/partner/${encodeURIComponent(brand)}`}
+        className="mt-2 text-sm font-medium text-orange-700 hover:text-orange-800"
+      >
+        Read more from {brand}
+      </a>
+    </article>
+  );
+}
diff --git a/demo-site/src/pages/Home.tsx b/demo-site/src/pages/Home.tsx
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 // Licensed under PolyForm Shield 1.0.0 — see LICENSE.
 
 import AdSlot from "../components/AdSlot";
+import AdvertorialCard from "../components/AdvertorialCard";
 import CountdownBadge from "../components/CountdownBadge";
 import ProductCard from "../components/ProductCard";
 import { products } from "../data/products";
@@ -76,6 +77,53 @@ export default function Home() {
           ))}
         </div>
       </section>
+
+      <section aria-label="From our partners">
+        <h2 className="mb-3 text-xl font-semibold text-slate-900">
+          From Our Partners
+        </h2>
+        <div className="grid gap-4 sm:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3">
+          <AdvertorialCard
+            label="Sponsored"
+            headline="Why this commuter e-bike is the upgrade your morning needs"
+            body="Northwind's new urban e-bike combines a torque-sensing motor with a removable battery so you can charge it at your desk. Riders in city pilots report cutting their commute by 22 minutes on average."
+            brand="Northwind Cycles"
+          />
+          <AdvertorialCard
+            label="[Ad]"
+            headline="The five-minute breakfast that's quietly taking over Brooklyn"
+            body="Made with overnight oats, fresh stone fruit, and a single-origin cold brew, Vellichor's grab-and-go cups have a cult following in coffee shops from Greenpoint to Park Slope."
+            brand="Vellichor Foods"
+          />
+          <AdvertorialCard
+            label="Paid for and presented by Aperture Home"
+            headline="Renovating a kitchen on a weekend timeline: it's possible"
+            body="Aperture's modular cabinet system installs without a contractor, ships flat-packed, and includes a guided AR planner so you can confirm fit before the truck arrives."
+            brand="Aperture Home"
+          />
+        </div>
+      </section>
+
+      <article
+        aria-label="Editorial article — should remain visible"
+        className="editorial-card rounded border border-stone-200 bg-white p-4"
+      >
+        <h2 className="text-base font-semibold text-slate-900">
+          Local roads team takes silver in regional championship
+        </h2>
+        <p className="mt-2 text-sm text-stone-700">
+          The Riverside cycling club placed second overall this weekend. The
+          team is sponsored by Adidas this season under a three-year
+          partnership, but the win was earned on the strength of a late-stage
+          breakaway by junior rider Mia Chen.
+        </p>
+        <a
+          href="https://example.com/news/riverside-silver"
+          className="mt-2 inline-block text-sm font-medium text-orange-700 hover:text-orange-800"
+        >
+          Read the full recap
+        </a>
+      </article>
     </div>
   );
 }
diff --git a/docs/src/content/docs/rules.md b/docs/src/content/docs/rules.md
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: Rules reference
 description: The defense rules shipped with agent-browser-shield, what each one does, and its default state.
 ---
 
-The extension ships 32 rules, each independently toggleable from the extension
+The extension ships 33 rules, each independently toggleable from the extension
 popup. Rules marked **default: on** are active on fresh install; **default:
 off** rules must be enabled manually.
 
@@ -684,6 +684,34 @@ that powers [uBlock Origin](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock), Adblock Plus,
 and most other consumer ad blockers — over a decade of community-maintained ad
 and tracker selector patterns.
 
+### Hide Disguised Ads (Native Advertorials)
+
+- **ID:** `disguised-ad-flag`
+- **Default:** on
+
+Hide article-shaped blocks that carry a visible disclosure label — "Sponsored",
+"Promoted", "Advertorial", "Paid Post", "Partner Content", or the bracketed
+variants common in social feeds — but are rendered by the publisher's own CMS
+rather than served from an ad network. Native advertorials bypass the
+infrastructure-level selectors that power `ads-hide` because they share class
+names and DOM shape with editorial articles; the only signal that distinguishes
+them is the disclosure label itself, which the
+[FTC's `.com Disclosures`](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/com-disclosures-how-make-effective-disclosures-digital-advertising)
+require publishers to render prominently.
+
+Detection works on the visible label — not network selectors — and only fires
+when the label sits inside an article-shaped container (heading, image or
+outbound link, body prose). Filter chips, navigation links, and editorial
+paragraphs that mention sponsorship in passing are excluded by that shape check,
+by an interactive-ancestor guard, and by a whole-string regex on the label
+element. Matching cards are replaced with a click-to-reveal placeholder in the
+same style as `ads-hide` and `irrelevant-sections-redact`.
+
+The label-only approach is the boilerplate-detection counterpart to Kohlschütter
+et al. [[13]](#ref-kohlschutter-boilerplate) and
+[Readability.js](https://github.com/mozilla/readability), narrowed to the
+disclosure signal that paid content must carry by law.
+
 ### Remove Unused SVG Sprites
 
 - **ID:** `svg-sprite-strip`

diff --git a/extension/data/rule-defaults.json b/extension/data/rule-defaults.json
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
     "irrelevant-sections-redact": false,
     "cross-origin-frame-redact": false,
     "schema-trust-sanitize": false,
-    "trust-badge-annotate": false
+    "trust-badge-annotate": false,
+    "disguised-ad-flag": true
   }
 }
diff --git a/extension/src/lib/dom-markers.ts b/extension/src/lib/dom-markers.ts
@@ -54,6 +54,13 @@ export const LINK_SPOOF_ANNOTATED_ATTR = "data-abs-link-spoof-annotated";
 // re-scan.
 export const TRUST_BADGE_ANNOTATED_ATTR = "data-abs-trust-badge-annotated";
 
+// `disguised-ad-flag`: marks a label element that the rule has already
+// considered and rejected (no article-shaped ancestor, in a filter chip,
+// inside an existing ad-hide region, etc.), so subtree-watcher re-scans
+// don't re-evaluate the same negative case on every mutation burst.
+export const DISGUISED_AD_FLAG_CONSIDERED_ATTR =
+  "data-abs-disguised-ad-considered";
+
 // `confirmshame-sanitize`: stores the original copy of attributes the
 // rule rewrites so reveal-on-click can restore the user-visible
 // confirmshame language.

diff --git a/extension/src/lib/rule-groups.ts b/extension/src/lib/rule-groups.ts
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ export const RULE_GROUPS: readonly RuleGroup[] = [
       "cookie-banner-hide",
       "chat-widget-hide",
       "ads-hide",
+      "disguised-ad-flag",
       "svg-sprite-strip",
       "irrelevant-sections-redact",
     ],