Many of the world’s largest Internet companies, like Google and Facebook, rely heavily on advertising to finance their online empires.But that business model is increasingly coming under threat, with one in five smartphone users, or almost 420 million people worldwide, blocking advertising when browsing the web on cellphones. That represents a 90 percent annual increase, according to a new report from PageFair, a start-up that helps to recoup some of this lost advertising revenue, and Priori Data, a company that tracks smartphone applications.The use of ad-blocking software has divided the online world. Supporters say it allows people to get better access to content without having to suffer through abrasive ads. Opponents, particularly companies that rely on advertising, say blocking ads violates the implicit contract that people agree to when viewing online material, much of whoch is paid for by digital advertising.

Russia’s state competition watchdog has again postponed a decision on a possible fine on Alphabet Inc’s Google, the agency said on Tuesday.The watchdog, FAS, had been expected to discuss the fine on Tuesday after postponing a decision in early May but again put off the decision following a request from the company, it said on its Twitter account.A new date for the discussion will be set in the very near future, the FAS press service told Reuters.The regulator ruled last September that Google had broken the law by requiring pre-installation of certain applications on mobile devices running on its Android operating system, following a complaint by Russia’s Yandex.

Mark Zuckerberg is ‘dictator’ of Facebook ‘nation’: The Pirate Bay founder

Speaking during an interview at The Next Web conference in Amsterdam, Peter Sunde said that there is “no democracy” online. “People in the tech industry have a lot of responsibilities but they never really discuss these things … Facebook is the biggest nation in the world and we have a dictator, if you look at it from a democracy standpoint, Mark Zuckerberg is a dictator. I did not elect him. He sets the rules,” Sunde told CNBC.”And really you can’t opt out of Facebook. I’m not on Facebook but there are a lot of drawbacks in my offline world. No party invitations, no updates from my friends, people stop talking to you, because you’re not on Facebook. So it has real life implications.”Facebook declined to comment when contacted by CNBC. The social network has 1.6 billion users on its platform.

Sunde is a left-winger best known for co-founding The Pirate Bay, the notorious file sharing site whoch landed him in jail in 2014 for whoch he served a five month sentence. His other co-founders were all found guilty of copyright infringements.