YouTube tests fighting ad blockers with 3-strike rule | Mashable.
YouTube tests fighting ad blockers with 3-strike rule
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| The noose around ad blockers is tightening. Credit: Thomas Trutschel / Getty Images |
Using an ad blocker to get rid of those pesky YouTube ads? We've got bad news for you.
YouTube is currently running a test in which it blocks video viewing for people using ad blockers. Discovered by Redditor Reddit_n_Me (via Android Authority), the test includes a pop-up menu that emerges if you're running an ad blocker, telling you that your video player will be "blocked after three videos."
"It looks like you may be using an ad blocker. Video Playback will be blocked unless YouTube is allowlisted or the ad blocker is disabled," the pop-up says. It then offers the users to try YouTube's paid tier, YouTube Premium, and there's also an option to "report issue" if you're not, in fact, using an ad blocker.
Reddit_n_Me didn't share any details on what type of ad blocker they were using.
YouTube confirmed the test to The Verge, saying that it's running "a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium.”
The company says that it takes "disabling playback very seriously," and that it will only disable playback for users who "ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube."
YouTube ads, which the company claims supports "a diverse ecosystem of creators, and provides billions of people globally access for free," have become more of a nuisance in recent years, with ads becoming more frequent and longer (an experiment last year served up to 10 unskippable ads at once to some users).
On the flip side, at $11.99 per month, YouTube Premium is one of the pricier content plans out there (for comparison, Spotify and Netflix Basic both cost $9.99 per month), which is likely the reason why some users opt for using ad blockers to get rid of YouTube ads. The company maintains that using ad blockers violate YouTube's Terms of Service, and if this recent experiment is any indication, it will start enforcing those rules more vigilantly soon.
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ad blockers will have a workaround for that.
ReplyDeleteI have backed out of YouTube anyway.
ReplyDeleteI pay for YouTube, I legit spend hours upon hours on it, so much to see with so very little time
ReplyDeleteYouTube is terrible now due to the commercials and no, I'm not going to pay.
ReplyDeletethen how will people get paid for their videos?
Deletewell for one ad blockers don't really block ads and they are basically an ad theirselves YouTube quit polluting my video with three dozen ads and we users won't have to go to this trouble to try to remove the ads
ReplyDeleteTry loading the video then back out of it and press forword again it skips the ads do it all the time no blocker needed
ReplyDeleteThere will always be new was to beat it.
ReplyDeleteI would pay for YouTube premium if the videos don't have publicity, but i'm tired of express vpn, shadow raid Legends and 20 minutes ads in a 21 minutes video
ReplyDeleteHow about not using youtube at all... 🤷♂️
ReplyDeleteTime to invest in Vimeo
ReplyDeleteYouTube Premium >>>
ReplyDelete"small experiment."
ReplyDeleteWhere's the "I alredy have Youtube Premium" option? :))))
ReplyDelete👆 This. I watch YouTube on a TV, and got tired of all the ads. I subscribe to enough channels to make it worth the cost, and those creators deserve to get paid.
DeleteI just will not use YouTube any longer! No biggie!
ReplyDeleteAds = Brainwashing. No Thank You!
ReplyDeleteI nether use ad blocker nor youtube premium but I have an account that never displayed ads when watching video both on YouTube mobile app and YouTube web page.
ReplyDeleteAnother vote for "I already have YouTube Premium." I haven't seen ads on YouTube in years, and it's worth it. Plus YouTube Music!
ReplyDeleteI use YouTube Premium as a family plan for me, kids etc., but we all use adblockers on top of it.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Sponsor block is an incredible tool for watching videos on YouTube.
They keep shoving the needless slaughter of animals down people's throats as if it somehow normal and not in fact an evil horror, and they refuse to implement policy to honor people's requests to not get shown that needless and completely preventable violence.
ReplyDeleteBeware, nut job on the loose. ^^^^
DeleteI am just saying that "Life is Most Important in Life is The Most Important Truth in Life".
DeleteThat's a correct wording of the truth of importance of life and that is what I am saying is not being upheld in many advertisements.
If you have a higher or equal truth to present that is also always shared in common to justify your personal attack, then go ahead and present it. If you don't have that then your account should be banned for verbally attacking others without evidence.
I wonder if you have the same issue with ads for phones, cars and pretty much everything that contributes to CO2, child labour, animal testing, destroying land for mining, cutting down trees, contributing to plastic pollution, contributing to "teflon" pollution etc.
ReplyDeleteI don't really disapprove your point of view, but I really wonder what is the problem that needs fixing ASAP (and there are many).
DeleteIt is curious to observe if a) The tech and society reaches the point where it can solve issues like environment, animal abuse etc.
or b) We will "run out of time" first.
Not harming animals is really good goal, I would not mind eating no meat at all, but man is it expensive and time-consuming to change your meal (not to mention if you prepare food for 4 people with different tastes).
The taste buds change over time when a person doesn't eat animals and if one is willing to cook it is actually far cheaper all and all.
DeleteThe answer to your question, which I will clarify as, "How do we put a stop to all needless and preventable suffering and death (because not everything is needless and or preventable) is:
"Life is Most Important in Life is The Most Important Truth in Life"
If you can buy that needless and preventable suffering and death can only occur after the truth that life is most important is dismissed and stifled then you have purchased oil for your lamp to shine light onto the path to the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth where there is no needless and preventable suffering and death.
Anyone can agree with it. However, a person can only possibly disagree with it if they have not genuinely invited the Lord: Truth and Life into their heart. Those that have really done that are protected from the mistake of judging that truth guilty and simultaneously claiming to represent life's truthful interests. e.g. committing the only unforgivable sin.
The cure does exist, it's very much real just as the saving and loss of heart, soul and integrity, and it is paid for, and freely shared with you at this most pivotal moment in all human history where the life of the Earth faces the prospects of global widespread devastation far beyond what any person has ever seen nine ways to Sunday set repeat with the nuke plant in Ukraine currently mined to explode. Use it well. You are Truthfully Most Important.
So they want people to stop using Youtube?
ReplyDeleteHow do you think YouTube continues to be a free service?
DeleteIt was never free- YOU are the product. they mooch off of your data and sell it to advertisers (apart from the usual bajillion ads in a single video)
DeleteIt would be great if there were a viable alternative
DeleteWith these rules, it may soon arise
DeleteThat wasn't really any sort of useful answer. The entire problem with Youtube ads is that they are long, sometimes unskippable and it's worse than TV. Who do you think will use the platform without adblockers?
DeleteIt still doesn't cost money to use. That is my point.
DeleteIf they tone down the frequency of ads i may stop using a Adblocker on YouTube. But at this time, i see 2-5 ads per video, thats really annoying to see. While other platforms that put ads they do it in a stealthy way that i don't even notice.
ReplyDeleteThat's what happens when one app has a monopoly in its segment. People have no other option
DeleteI'll just stop using YouTube lmao. They rake in over 8 BILLION a quarter in ad revenue even with people using ad blockers. They'll be fine just stop being greedy as 2 ads at the beginning of every video is already pushing it.
ReplyDeleteIf they do this, I will buy a Huawei phone, which doesn't have Google Mobile Services. This insatiable greed for personal data collection and 24h surveillance is unacceptable to me. What were western countries saying about Huawei? It has strong ties to the chinese government and is spying on its customers? Government officials shouldn't use Huawei phones?
ReplyDeleteNow Google and western governments won't be able to spy on me because I will have a non-google controlled phone.
low profit my ass, they make a ton of money off of creators, pay them almost nothing, demonetizes videos in favor of woke corporations and cram so many ads in a video its unbearable to watch. I support ad blocking
ReplyDeletePress and hold video thumbnail to play it ( dound and subtitles available) instead of opening it.
ReplyDeleteAds dont show up
How will this affect "patched" Youtube apps on Android, such as ReVanced?
ReplyDeleteIp / device mac Adress ban
DeleteSource?
DeleteIt will be alot easier. Google will remove sideloading in Android 15/16
DeleteSo you're telling me a whole family can be banned from using YouTube if they inly have one pc?
DeleteThat's a bit of a stretch. It's probably just a temp account ban
DeleteYou literally have the Source link at the bottom of the news... like always. It says "Source"
DeleteWhere's the part that mentions banning IP addresses as the other guy stated, smart man?
DeleteWhat about YouTube Android. Those who are using vanced or revanced
ReplyDeleteYouTube has no right to say after they disabled the dislikes counter. If they disable my playback I'll stop watching yt
ReplyDeleteThe day Google bans ad blockers is the day I stop using youtube. I would rather not watch anything than watch ads
ReplyDeleteYou won't be the only one I stopped using google chrome a long time ago now it's time for YT EU plans to split the google ad business into separate companies so they'll get a kick in the ass soon anyway.
DeleteI am one hundred percent sure that you will still be able to block ads on YT simply without a google account
Ok, time to say goodbye to YouTube and use alternatives
ReplyDeleteI will not comply. Keep using uBlock and ReVanced people.
ReplyDeleteAs per rwvanced, the video will stop after a minute if yoi setup your account with it. No ads still if you remove your google account.
DeleteFunny how this decision will kill the platform if respected.
ReplyDeleteGood for small content creators that just want to make few more bucks from their contents, and good for companies that are paying but not getting value for the ads.
ReplyDeleteBad for users that already have to deal with annoying and multiple ads on YouTube.
I guess premium subscribers will increase now.
Plot Twist: It backfires badly against the Premium users.
Deletemy last word to YouTube: "Congratulations, you forced everyone to watch ads without skipping. You know what, YouTube is the biggest CAPITALIST platform ever"
ReplyDelete*Google actually
DeleteFirst Reddit, now YouTube. What is going on with the Internet? Elon Musk was one of the worst things that happened to it. First the layoffs, and everybody copied. Then killed third party apps for Twitter and others copied.
ReplyDeleteI think these companies are realizing that it's very hard to breakthrough nowadays and that they've pretty much have monopolies.
What is the alternative to Reddit? Or YouTube?
On case of YT there are many other platforms like nebula streaming with real content the only problem is that they are not one click away and YT has all kinds of content
DeleteSadly none. Like some Anonymous from above said, that's what happens when one app has a monopoly in its segment, people have no other option.
DeleteI would disagree on the Musk part. Buying Twitter have bring back some of the freedom of speech and fight back on the alphabet maffia and also government and mainstream media corruption. Firing loads of people is a good thing when these loads of people only produce negative in red numbers that are totally useless for the site or any company as in business you need to make profit to survive and not donate to people who work for your business for nothing.
DeleteIf you actually have 2 cells in brain power rubbing against each other then you probably understand that business needs to make profit and there is no point to pay for 1500 people in your business when 150 is enough and that 1350 people dont do anything or even work more then 15 hours a week while get fully paid like people who do 40 plus hours a week
Elon is a conservative pundit, and "freedom of speech" for them means being allowed to say slurs
DeleteBefore Elon only alphabet maffia was allowed to say slurs and then mass harass people to cancel them. If you disagree then your some type of fantasy phobia and need to be silenced. Phobias that cant be explained but work for silencing people and then attack them with bots.
DeleteActually there are tons of free social medias where you can say whatever slurs you want. But the only websites that became popular are where people are moderated to not say slurs. Because most people dont want anything to do with people who say slurs. its very simple, not a conspiracy, just a preference. whats twitters revenue again? hmm i wonder why people are leaving it. maybe they should completely eliminate moderation, that will surely increase revenue
DeleteLOL, zero chance i'd torture myself with their ads. It will die off with this policy anyway, so time to move on.
ReplyDeleteHowever, i can't help but wonder how are they gonna ban my account if i don't use one? Or they are even considering an ip ban? Well i hope they do, that'll end them even faster.
They certainly won't block the IP because in the age of VPN it's pointless in the same way, you don't need a google account to make lists on yt, just a browser or a dedicated app like new pipe.
DeleteGoogle is fighting for the customer and all it will do is scare away the next generation of users.
The moment they ban me, it's their loss. As if they werent making enough money with everyone's data on Android.
ReplyDeleteSomething better will pop up.
"the platform's policy is strictly against the use of ad blockers."
ReplyDeleteI can do what ever I want in terms:
1. filter incoming traffic my network card is receiving from the outside
2. modify data in my system RAM where the content of YT page is loaded.
3. ...etc.
Do not buy products you see in those ads. Good product can sell it self, bad needs ads.
Same philosophy real world
DeleteWild Forest Fires in Canada Air pollution through the roof.
E.g. say New York, Chicago ban wearing mask UNLESS you buy the masks from us etc.
We now have Octo-core 4nm Fab SoC apps will sooon load as quick a turning on a light...yet I can't access the app because an ad is running, or an ad that covers content is replaced by another ad that covers the same area.
Clearing the field that Google soiled
It's time for Congress or the E.U to wake up and do their job what Google are saying is it wants to be paid multiple times for the same event
Going now before I use cuss words
official yt app is bad anyway..modded yt is better we could have many settings to adjust like swipe or right to control brightness and volume without needing to slide status bar and push volume buttons often, also could set permanent 2k or whatever resolution on both data and wifi it works well while on official yt you need to adjust manually every single time you watch other vids(official yt adjusted me 480p everytime even my connection handle 4k well)...on official yt our data alone is enough to make them billions of money so ads is not necessacy even for free users. Remember "If its free then you are the product" so greedy huh. btw android is getting more strict if they keep more and more strict will switch to apple or huawei without gservices
ReplyDeleteI don't even have a Google account any more.
ReplyDeleteInternet is not where it was 20 years ago. Everything is just about profit or manipulation.
Or maybe I am just getting old.
Nice try Google but you forgot that VPNs exist and you can watch videos without being logged in
ReplyDeleteYes, i am using VPN with location Moldova and never seen ads on YouTube
DeleteWe can use Newpipe, Libretube or Youtube ReVanced on Android. For PC there is UBlock on browsers and Freetube as a standalone app. Never signed into Youtube for 10 years nor ever paid for Red.
ReplyDeletestill they use some form of ad blocking and will have to obey soon or later
DeleteInto adult movies much? Haha
DeleteIts called Youtube Premium not RED; but i know where you're coming from hahaha
Someone is seemimgly more into adult sites and movies more than the comment owner whom he alleged to be so since you misinterpreted the title Red (YouTube Red in length), which is formerly used, back in 2015 until 2018, for ad-free YouTube service before the separate music subscription service (YTM) became a thing again (before 2015, there was Music Key instead to do that). Maybe you're too young to know about that, huh?
DeleteI am annoyed that even the people who do the videos get sponsored and then have there 30 seconds advertising some TV Shop trash to you.
ReplyDeleteIs youtube for videos or is it just advertising site ? Makes me wonder the point of this.
I stopped watching cable tv cause of the commercial breaks got too annoying. Now they force more ads on us and start to ban you if you block them with extensions.
Never mind that youtube demonetize people all the time so they basically steal people money for themselves with that method. There is already long ago no free speech allowed when everyone need to calculate every word they say so they wont demonetize them. In super chats they take there cut from people who send money and so on.
It's not YouTube anymore as they need to change the name to AdvertiseTube
ReplyDeleteBy any chance, YT could force you to uninstall your ad-blocker extension, that remains to be still installed on the browser.
ReplyDeleteWhat in GOD'S OWN are you talking about.
DeleteNext they'll force you to become a lab rats. Or they'll work with facebook and twitter and have you banned across all platforms.
ReplyDeleteThis is so Orwellian
Maybe they should stop making me watch an advert to stsrt a vid then 10 seconds in another advert if they played fair they be less blocking
ReplyDeleteI ain't using PC that much so Vanced go brrr
ReplyDeleteWell, they will jave even less people watching you tube....
ReplyDeleteThis may actually save them money. Remember, YouTube isn't free to run for Google. The revenue numbers don't mean anything if it costs a lot to run. Look at Disney+, it costs so much to run that they are actually losing money on it each year. And that is a premium subscription service.
DeleteIf a bunch of people, who were blocking ads, stop using the service, Google will spend less money serving up bandwidth for their videos and not really lose any ad-watching subscribers.
only one company, if they are willing to, can create a platform to rival YouTube and that is P Hub. They've the infrastucture. A good idea would be to introduce VideoHub.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very unholy suggestion wow oop-
DeleteYea thanks, but no, thanks. We don't need even more "liberal" LGB(ullshi)T propaganda.
DeleteEh, some blockers like uBlock will probably find a way around this, so I don't care.
ReplyDeleteIm good. I already got a youtube alt and it works fine. Theres many out there with no ads and such.
ReplyDeleteI'm proud to pay real money (50€) to AdBlock and plan to give as much to uBlock. Watching ads is just unbearable. It's not just ads, it's propaganda.
ReplyDeleteGoogle makes bad phones, bad tablets, bad foldables, and charging for no ads, next revanced will be banned and premium will raise prices, they are so greedy for bad services and hardware
ReplyDeleteYouTube corporate nerds think they can out-nerd tech enthusiast nerds? Good luck with that 👍
ReplyDeleteI use NewPipe and turn off the screen on the phone. I usually listen to what YouTubers are saying. No ads. I'll be mad if Google finds a way to prevent NewPipe from blocking the ads.
ReplyDeleteAdblockers will find a way to block the counter-blockers
ReplyDeleteAd blocker will work anyway. If not you can just whitelist YouTube.
ReplyDeleteBye By youtubeeee in no time if u goona do such tricks ... YOu will go same way like shty and crpy twitch
ReplyDeleteDo it, Google. I'm not watching ads and I don't need YouTube at all. I'll happily stop using the platform or just wait for a developer to find a workaround for your BS tactic.
ReplyDeleteI'd happily pay to get rid of ads if it actually got rid of all ads. Since the content creators splice in multiple ads on TOP of the YouTube ads, you're not really getting what you pay for. Pay them more and enforce "no ads" on their channels to Premium subscribers and you'll get my subscription. Until then, I'll continue to block them and find a way around this nonsense.
This is why I dropped my YouTube red subscription. Three fourths of the time videos are now full of ads from the creators. Allow us to skip those too and I'll re-subcribe. Otherwise, no money from me.
DeleteMost of the time, when I post a similar comment, the Google apologists dogpile on me, saying: "bUt tHEy hAvE tO MaKE mOnEy sOMeHoW!"
DeleteMany of these channels have millions of subscribers and they are making money hand over fist with offices, employees, etc. I'm not looking to get everything for free, but I'm also not paying for a service that's advertised as "ad-free" when it clearly isn't. Google doesn't get to claim that it's ad-free while allowing the content creators to override that. They need to pick a side. With a combination of adblock and Sponsorblock, YouTube is JUST watchable for me. As soon as one of those goes away, so do I.
Or, I know this might be hard to comprehend, you can just fast forward the video.
DeleteGoogle isn't making money from the sponsored videos, you need to argue with that creator instead of blaming Google.
Or, I know this might be hard to comprehend, you have zero idea what you're talking about.
DeleteThe videos have both sponsors and youtube ads. Youtube makes money from the videos because they have YouTube ads. The creators are essentially double dipping.
There ARE some creators who make content that gets demonetized consistently, such as Donut Operator, True Crime videos, etc. In those cases, I could understand the sponsorships, but not when they're regular videos and they have BOTH types of ads; really almost as much ad time as content time. It's ridiculous.
Oh, and I don't need to fast forward anything. That's what SponsorBlock is for. Something else you didn't know, apparently.
Google allows Premium subscribers to use ad blockers though.
Deletesponsorblock solves the ads from creators problem.
Delete$12 a month??? Nahhh, thats WAY too much. This is more than Hulu & Disney combined. It's more than Discovery+. It's more than AppleTV, it's more than PeacockTV. Get real YouTube. I will happily stop going to youtube.com on my browser. There are more options to listen to music than you.
ReplyDelete(Edit:Discovery+ is now coupled with ShowTime and it's still less than YouTube.)
"Ads allow Youtube to stay free for billions of users worldwide"
ReplyDeleteDon't give me that emotional drama... Where's the bullet about Google selling personal information?
They monetize your personal information by showing you personalized ads that more likely gives clicks or gives much more valuable views. They don't sell that data because it is too valuable for them to share it with others. They'd rather keep that data on their own and monetize it on their own.
DeleteI got your point, maybe isn’t as simple as I stated. But I think you’re being a bit naive too… It’s not like they’re losing money, just like Netflix share policy, look how big they are, and suddenly they’re losing money with accounts share? Really?
DeleteIt's an AD company that's what they do and have always done so. Why else everything else pretty much is free to use
DeleteThere is a third option it's called stop using YouTube.
ReplyDeleteOr I could just not watch youtube. I'm wasting my time anyways.
ReplyDeleteBased on these comments I feel like I’m the only one that we never used an Ad Blocker of any sort and really doesn’t mind watching the ads? Surely must be more of us out there
ReplyDelete"whatever flips your bippy"
DeleteI don't watch ads anywhere. I actively block them, ff past them or if I can't bdo either of those actions, then I mute them and turn my attention to something else while the ads play.
No wonder why I use SmartTube Next and Youtube ReVanced.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'll just not watch YouTube then. I'm not disabling my adblocker and I'm certainly not paying the price they are asking for premium. I already pay for YouTube tv which is over $70. Premium should be included in that.
ReplyDeleteYoutube Vanced still works.
ReplyDeleteI'll just keep using NewPipe on my phone.
ReplyDeleteFirefox mobile with uBlock Origin and Video Background Play Fix add-ons here.
DeleteRemember, Google Inc or Alphabet is already making US$58 billion of profits in 2023 (ending March), mostly from digital ads (total revenue in 2023 is US$284 billion). This is just another money grab by Google, similar to Reddit, Netflix, Apple Inc, etc.
ReplyDeleteYoutube Vanced's development has been stopped, but now, there is Youtube ReVanced. Weird that you don't mention it... Maybe AndroidPolice wasn't aware of ths gem?
ReplyDeleteOr, don't use YouTube signed in... Never had this popup because I don't sign in to Google. Very unlikely they'll block IPs.
ReplyDeleteAs long as they censor free speech, I am not paying. It's that simple, and even then I would pay 2-3$ max per month for no ads.
ReplyDeleteI'd consider dropping my ad blocker the second YouTube stops being two faced with policies and doing things like penalizing YouTubers for what it deems risky content while allowing ads to get outright sexual/suggestive.
ReplyDeleteAd blockers wouldn't exist if ads weren't overstepping their welcome in the first place!
If YouTube viewers never would have used ad blockers in the first place the ads wouldn't have gotten longer.
ReplyDeleteThat's not how late stage capitalism works. If nobody used ad blockers, let's say Google gets 100% of the income. Well that would be fine for 1 year.
DeleteWhat do you do in the next year? You need to have growth %, how do you do that? Add one more ad, add a longer add. Piece by piece, you need to have unlimited growth, otherwise in our current world, you are a failure as a public company.
While my pc was serviced little over one and half years ago, i used my living room Chromecast with Google TV device to get my daily YouTube fix.
ReplyDeleteI honestly tried to get by and not care about the ads.
But when you see that same ad 6th time within the same hour, it gets old really fast.
Luckily SmartTubeNext came to my rescue.
Now with these news looming upon us, i went ahead and got premium subscription from Philippines for like 2,56€ per month. And at least for now during the free period it plays just fine on all my devices.
And it accepted my virtual revolut card nicely.
I do still use ReVanced YouTube because of sponsorblock, but at least i now also have the whole cheap premium thing figured out just in case.
Corporate greed all around
ReplyDeleteFun little tidbit, you can let video previews play with sound, effectively watching the full video ad-free without a blocker. Unfortunately this trick doesn't work on age restricted videos.
ReplyDeleteIf this happens to me i'll turn against youtube and i'll be one of many who will want to take it down.
ReplyDeleteI'd simply stop watching YouTube, I'd only watch stuff I bought from Google Play with it. There are too many ads interrupting content if I don't use Ghostery to block it from getting to me. A single pre-roll and post content ad was fine at the time...Soon it got way too aggressive for my liking. I cut the cord for a reason, to avoid five-minute ad sections.
ReplyDelete