YouTube seems to have found a new way to combat ad blockers - and it's super annoying

YouTube seems to have found a new way to combat ad blockers - and it's super annoying

Update: A YouTube spokesperson told Tom's Guide: "The ad blocker violates YouTube's Terms of Service and we have been urging users for some time to support their favorite creators and allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. An unrelated push to improve YouTube's performance and reliability could result in an optimal viewing experience for ad blocker users.

The original story is as follows:

YouTube is not a fan of ad blockers, and video streaming sites may be taking their opposites to a new level. According to the report, YouTube is skipping videos of users currently running ad blockers, starting to mute the audio, and making attempts to get people to turn off the software. 

The news comes from a post by Reddit user SDHD4K (via Android Authority) that features a video showing how Youtube has begun to treat ad blockers. When it detects that there is an ad blocker, the streaming site jumps straight to the end of the video. Other users claim that their audio is muted in the video, no matter where they moved the volume slider.

It seems that ad blocker developers are aware of the change and are already starting to work around it. A user in the same Reddit thread states that Ublock Origin and Opera GX have already found a workaround. There's no word on whether other developers have come up with their own workarounds.

YouTube has been working on ways to stop ad blockers because they lose revenue from ads due to extensions. From a YouTube perspective, users prefer to pay for the YouTube Premium tier or sit on ads that appear in front of and in the middle of a video. 

However, users complain that the steps YouTube has taken are causing the service to suffer. Earlier this year, reports of annoying delays emerged for YouTube users with ad blockers enabled. However, a YouTube spokesperson told Android Central at the time: "Recent reports of users experiencing loading delays on YouTube have nothing to do with ad blocker detection efforts.

YouTube's battle with ad blockers will never end, and the company will not be content until extensions no longer affect ad revenue. 

Categories