Brave tried to mock Firefox for default ads, then got reminded of its own settings menu

Brave Browser has deleted an official tweet mocking Firefox’s default settings after users pointed out that Brave’s own out-of-the-box experience is packed with sponsored content.

The back-and-forth started when the Brave Nightly account posted a screenshot calling out Firefox for shipping with sponsored Amazon and Shein tiles alongside Google as the default search engine.

Helium browser’s founder, @uwukko, quickly fired back with screenshots of a clean Brave installation, which triggered a wave of pushback that forced Brave to scrub the post.

The evidence they shared clearly shows that Brave is also in the same boat, if not worse, with its default setup. A fresh 2026 install of Brave loads sponsored wallpaper ads on the new tab page right away unless you manually opt out. It also bundles pinned shortcuts for Brave VPN, Brave Talk, regional crypto rewards, and their Leo AI assistant. Telemetry and analytics are enabled by default too.

Here are a couple of screenshots I took on Brave Browser after a fresh install:

Turning off those background ads requires digging through menus or visiting the official Brave Support Page, where the company lays out a wall of text justifying the placements before showing how to hide them.

Brave targets these promotions on-device through its own programmatic network, detailed on the Brave Ads site, which handles user cohorts similarly to old Google tracking mechanics.

Longtime users in the thread also brought up older grievances, like the time Brave got caught hardcoding affiliate referral links into cryptocurrency URLs typed into the address bar.

Supporters argue that Brave’s core tracking protection is still stronger than a default Firefox setup and everything bloat-related can be turned off in thirty seconds.

Mozilla deserves its share of scrutiny after removing “we never sell your data” language from its privacy policy last year.

But throwing stones from a browser that ships with an AI chatbot and a crypto wallet built into the taskbar was never going to end well. 

That said, Brave now also offers its paid browser, Brave Origin, with a lot of the unnecessary junk stripped away. You can read more about that here.

Featured image generated with AI

We stand out from the tech-media crowd because we break news stories; we mainly bring you stuff that you won’t find anywhere in the mainstream tech media. Our stories have been picked up by some of the world’s most popular websites and media outlets—more info is available here.