YouTube is cracking down on the use of ad blockers on its site, and the Google-owned streaming service is warning users to turn off privacy tools.
YouTube users have complained about the decision, which states that videos are blocked if other people refuse to see classified ads on the service, on Reddit.
If you don’t need to turn off your ad blocker, Google has you covered: sign up for YouTube Premium for $13. 99.
So, what’s on YouTube, and how can you still watch videos on the site?Here’s what you want to know.
It may seem sudden, but this move has been in the works for some time, and YouTube first tested the procedure in June, according to a tech post on The Verge.
Fast forward to now and this verification is accelerating. If YouTube detects that you are an ad blocker, a pop-up window will appear stating, “Ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube. “
It goes on to describe how classified ads make YouTube more flexible and asks users to sign up for YouTube Premium if they don’t need to watch classified ads.
Google, which owns YouTube, has its entire business style around advertising, so the service will use ad blockers if it can.
With this in mind, Sean Wright, an independent security researcher, says the ban on ad blockers on YouTube is “not surprising. “
“Content creators can just make a profit from those ads,” he says. “Ad blocker detection is nothing new and there are other sites that already do it. “
Also, as YouTube comes out, ad blockers are going against their terms of service. “The use of ad blockers violates YouTube’s terms of service,” a YouTube spokesperson told me. “We’ve introduced a global effort to incentivize the audience with ad blockers enabled to allow classified ads on YouTube or check out YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. It publishes a diverse ecosystem of creators around the world and allows billions of people to access their favorite content on YouTube.
YouTube goes unnoticed by those who try to find loopholes in its ban on ad blockers. The affected audience will receive repeated notifications asking them to allow classified ads on YouTube. If you continue to use ad blockers despite repeated requests to allow classified ads, ads on YouTube, playback may be disabled.
Ad blocker detection is new, YouTube says, noting that other publishers routinely ask the audience to turn off ad blockers.
YouTube has complicated technology, which helps it stumble upon ad blockers and ask you to turn them off.
Wright says that if you need to proceed with YouTube, you can check to see if your ad blocker allows any kind of whitelisting. “Another option is to have a separate browser without any ad blockers installed,” he suggests. “Finally, the last, and perhaps easiest, solution is to pay for the premium membership. “
Others have described how to circumvent the ban on ad blockers, but it’s an annoying process.
The ad-blocking service Adblock Plus also offers some recommendations on its site. If you see YouTube’s ad-blocking wall, it recommends that you keep your removal lists up-to-date so that any adjustments made through the authors of the removal list are implemented in your extension.
He also suggests adding YouTube to your allow list so that the ad-blocking wall doesn’t prevent you from accessing the content you need to watch. “While it’s about allowing YouTube classifieds, Adblock Plus will continue to block pop-ups and other annoying classifieds for others,” it says.