YouTube shuts down ad-blocker loophole, tightens restrictions

[midian182]

A hot potato: YouTube is once again cracking down on those who use ad blockers. The Google-owned company has been implementing measures to combat third-party extensions for years, and it has just closed a loophole that allowed the likes of Firefox to circumvent these protections.

YouTube's fight against ad blockers began with an experiment in May 2023, when it started warning users that ad blockers were not allowed on the site. Since then, the campaign has evolved to the point where YouTube prevents ad-blocker users from playing videos.

Despite YouTube's efforts, there have been loopholes allowing apps such as Firefox and various extensions to continue bypassing ads without YouTube detecting the practice.

Unfortunately for those who had been exploiting these workarounds, YouTube now appears to have closed them down. 9to5Google reports that many users are once again seeing warnings stating that ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube, and that they are violating YouTube's terms of service.

According to the many Reddit posts discussing the latest change, not everyone is being affected – at least not yet. It appears those in Southeast Asia and Europe are still managing to avoid YouTube's ads using the same ad-blocking methods. It could be that YouTube is slowly rolling out the update globally.

This crackdown is just the latest one from YouTube. Expect a new way to avoid ads to appear in due course, at which point the company will find a way to stop it, continuing the unending game of whack-a-mole.

It was only in March that YouTube introduced a new anti-ad-blocker policy to push viewers back to watching ads. It affected those using Opera GX with the uBlock Origin extension. There were also some instances of Firefox users seeing the warnings at the time.

YouTube offers users two options in their warning banners: disable the ad-blocker or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. The standard premium subscription is $14 per month. There's also Premium Lite, which offers ad-free viewing for most videos (though they are coming to Shorts), for $8 per month.

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YouTube shuts down ad-blocker loophole, tightens restrictions

 

[vicsrealms]

Hmm, all I did was empty mach cache and restarted the browser and it has worked fine.

 

[yRaz]

They also keep raising the price of YouTube Premium. IIRC, it was only like $5 when it came out which was perfectly acceptable. However, I can see they'd rather spend millions trying to play cat and mouse with Ad-Blockers than lower their prices to attract users to subscribe. Their biggest issue is that youtube has been free and ad-blocker friendly for so long that it has become expected that this is just the way things should be.

The worst part is that youtube doesn't "pay" for content. It's all user generated and pay-outs to content creators has been going DOWN for over a decade. Youtube has become so cheap with their payouts that creators have started to need sponsors and other platflorms like Patreon to make money.

Anyway, I'm in the US and I use Firefox with ublock origin and I haven't been impacted yet. Maybe it's something to do with using Linux?

 

[Vulcanproject]

Blockers still largely work after updates on Chrome. Change your browser to alternatives like Brave, and of course if you like your current browser a very easy way around ads is just use a VPN to a country that typically doesn't serve ads

 

[dangh]

Unfortunately there is no alternative for YT, they are total monopoly there. I got a premium as I can't have kids watching the ads all the time, it is already difficult to control what do they see there as parental control is obviously a joke there. It is pissing me off, especially with the price increases, but what could we do.

Btw, if you still use add blocker and stuff, google how to use the custom DNS to get rid of all ads at all no matter what browser do you use. And while you're on it, check the FUTO sovereign cloud...

 

[Kirby1]

Ublock on edge, still working just fine.

 

[magoid]

I even would think to watch the damn ads, if YT wasn't such ***holes, screwing content creators financially and changing their rules at random (at the same time keeping those rules ambiguous), to screw creators even more.

The way they are now, I would rather migrate to other platforms than watch their precious ads. I turn off my adblocker for sites I respect (including you Techspot), but for Google, they can go pound sand.

 

[RudyBob]

"YouTube is once again cracking down on those who use ad blockers." They cracked down on me, bugger.

The ads would not be so bad if they weren't bad and woke. What are ya gonna do?

 

[RudyBob]

Blockers still largely work after updates on Chrome. Change your browser to alternatives like Brave, and of course if you like your current browser a very easy way around ads is just use a VPN to a country that typically doesn't serve ads

Brave has been very good but it no longer works for me

 

[Jme Kerul]

Funny thing, some science-content creators publish some of their content on *Hub because the creators are better paid than on YT.

 

[wiyosaya]

Not affecting Waterfox with uBlock.

 

[redgarl]

Brave has been very good but it no longer works for me

Mine was still working as yesterday.

The day I will be forced to watch ads for youtube videos, will be my last day on the platform. I will even delete my profile.

 

[m4a4]

Last week I saw 1 warning, it closed by clicking off of it, and nothing since.

Youtube isn't winning this arms race (as long as they allow free access).

 

[opckieran]

More than happy to continue successfully blocking ads from WokeTube. Google has threatened crackdowns on ad-blockers for years and I have yet to experience it.

 

[letsgoiowa]

My preference would be that we migrate to something like Odysee but people won't actually follow through.
I don't know what people expect though: do they really think they can stream 4K/60 FPS videos for hours a day for free? Do they think uploading petabytes of data a minute doesn't cost anything? Paying for it is the most ethical option, but YT keeps changing arbitrary rules to punish on ideological basis.

 

[yRaz]

My preference would be that we migrate to something like Odysee but people won't actually follow through.
I don't know what people expect though: do they really think they can stream 4K/60 FPS videos for hours a day for free? Do they think uploading petabytes of data a minute doesn't cost anything? Paying for it is the most ethical option, but YT keeps changing arbitrary rules to punish on ideological basis.

With youtube compression their 4k60 hardly counts at 1080p

 

[HAZERD2]

Brave has been very good but it no longer works for me

I use brave and it definately works

Anyway, I'm in the US and I use Firefox with ublock origin and I haven't been impacted yet. Maybe it's something to do with using Linux?

Maybe, I'm on linux and it works fine

 

[mb2025]

They also keep raising the price of YouTube Premium. IIRC, it was only like $5 when it came out which was perfectly acceptable. However, I can see they'd rather spend millions trying to play cat and mouse with Ad-Blockers than lower their prices to attract users to subscribe. Their biggest issue is that youtube has been free and ad-blocker friendly for so long that it has become expected that this is just the way things should be.

The worst part is that youtube doesn't "pay" for content. It's all user generated and pay-outs to content creators has been going DOWN for over a decade. Youtube has become so cheap with their payouts that creators have started to need sponsors and other platflorms like Patreon to make money.

Anyway, I'm in the US and I use Firefox with ublock origin and I haven't been impacted yet. Maybe it's something to do with using Linux?

Thing is, it was free for so long because YouTube made a ton of ad revenue. Back then, only the most hardcore PC users were blocking ads. Now every browser does it by default, so they can't make enough money to keep it free. If you watch enough YouTube where an ad blocker is required to enjoy it, what's the issue with paying a subscription fee? YouTube is worth it for me because I don't really watch Netflix or anything else very often at all. Also, yes, the price goes up over time as the cost of running a service goes up. It's like that with everything. I'd imagine the price goes up faster because of ad blocking. The other thing is (and a big one for me), creators get paid better from Premium views. Multiple creators have confirmed this. I also make use of YouTube Music in my vehicle, though I much preferred Google Play Music (RIP).

 

[GeforcerFX]

I had one popup last week, closed firefox so it could update haven't seen it since. Ublock origin can adapt faster than Google can push these changes out they arn't going to win this.

 

[MaXtor]

AdNauseam still working fine on Firefox.

(AdNauseam is a uBlock Origin fork that uses the same block lists but silently clicks on all ads in the background to obfuscate profiling.)

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

Last week I started getting 40+ second long groups of 3 ads now AND “Seed” poop ads that literally use the word “poop” in the first 5 seconds while dropping Seed probiotics pills into some sort of liquid. It’s disgusting, and disabling the health care services category of ads didn’t do ****.

 

[Rocky4040]

I even would think to watch the damn ads, if YT wasn't such ***holes, screwing content creators financially and changing their rules at random (at the same time keeping those rules ambiguous), to screw creators even more.

The way they are now, I would rather migrate to other platforms than watch their precious ads. I turn off my adblocker for sites I respect (including you Techspot), but for Google, they can go pound sand.

I mainly watch on PC with AD blocker. When we got a Roku TV we tried watching on that for about 3 months mainly because it was easier just to use the remote to go to the YT app and quickly find something to watch than the PC.

I would not have minded the ADs so much if they were not so annoying and so often. While we used the Roku I wore out 4 sets of remote batteries just having to keep hitting skip AD every few minutes. The other part that was stupid was having so many ADs every minute or so even if the video was only 12-15 minutes long.

You also had to keep the remote handy at all times because if you didn't or walked out of the room to get something. YT would play one of those 4-5-minute ADs and it would continue until you hit skip AD. It is stuff like this that annoys myself and most likely most everyone else as well. Then there is the if you don't want to see ADs then pay for prem YT. Well I would consider it if it was not way to much for the sub for prem every month and if Google would give more or any of it to the creators that are working to make the videos. If Google wants my money then they need to lower the monthly and stop being *******es with the ADs and treating the creators better. Amazon has a Ad tier service and even with the ADs they do not come very often and they are short and it gets back to the show you are watching quickly.

To my surprise Netflix has followed the same path as Amazon in this regard and so far it has not been to bad.

 

[wiyosaya]

AdNauseam still working fine on Firefox.

(AdNauseam is a uBlock Origin fork that uses the same block lists but silently clicks on all ads in the background to obfuscate profiling.)

Oh great! If you care about making money for You Tube, this method is for you.

 

[brucek]

Firefox working for me as usual. I wonder how many like me switched their daily driver from Chrome to Firefox over this issue?

 

[BadThad]

I knew when google bought YT it'd be a disaster. They ruined the platform in many ways since. The ads are ridiculous, too many, too frequent, too long. If you're not on the "skip" button, they will gladly force you into watching 5 minutes of a garbage infomercial ad.

I would pay because we watch a good bit of YT in our house but it's far too expensive for simple ad removal. If they had an option for $30/yr, I'd be interested.