YouTube cracks down (again) on ad blockers, frustrating users

In a nutshell: YouTube is now 20 years old, and the platform has changed significantly since its early days. A sizable minority of users is fed up with invasive advertising and actively seek ways to block ads whenever possible. It’s a classic cat-and-mouse game.

Some users are once again frustrated by YouTube’s erratic behavior with ad blockers. The issue appears to affect various browsers and layout engines, suggesting that Google may have introduced a new anti-ad blocker policy to push viewers back to watching ads.

According to a recent Neowin report, YouTube has begun displaying its familiar banner warning against ad blockers, citing a violation of the site’s terms of service. The message states: “It looks like you may be using an ad blocker. Video playback is blocked unless YouTube is allowlisted or the ad blocker is disabled.”

Google insists that advertising is essential to maintaining YouTube as a free platform for billions of users worldwide. The company also emphasizes that there is only one “legitimate” way to disable ads: subscribing to YouTube Premium. This paid service ensures that creators are compensated through subscription revenue.

The banner presents users with just two options: allow ads by disabling the ad blocker or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience.

The anti-ad blocker banner resurfaced for users surfing the web through Opera GX. The Chromium-based, gaming-oriented browser started showing the warning despite uBlock Origin being active. The same issue seems to affect some Firefox instances, while a few users were apparently unable to remove the banner even after turning the powerful ad blocking extension off.

Neowin reported that Chrome was being affected as well, providing a sluggish performance while uBlock Origin was active. So far, I had no luck trying to replicate the anti-ad blocker issue while watching several YouTube videos. My Firefox setup (135.0.1) plus uBlock Origin 1.62.0 is still working as intended, no issues in blocking ads or watching videos at full speed/resolution to report.

Google has been trying to abate the increasing popularity of ad blockers on YouTube for quite some time now. The video platform is routinely “punishing” users with ad blockers, or even with non-Chrome browsers, while Chrome is currently in the process of transitioning to Manifest V3. The new extension technology is incompatible with uBlock Origin or other powerful ad blockers, while scammers are still having a blast.

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