That's just arguing in bad faith, unless you can at least demonstrate that this particular journal has copied their articles in the past.
Even if you were to entertain that thought however it doesn't make them any more guilty of "terrorism" like op called them
I didn't say ads can't contain malware, but it's a bit of a "(some) internet malware is ads, but not all ads are malware" scenario, it's very dependent on who they get the ads from and how tight those ads get reviewed. Broad statements like that are just ignorant, and I say that as someone who uses an adblock on all of their devices.