Some Youtube users are greeted with a message that says the site is now banning ad blocking.
Youtube is without a doubt the most popular platform that is dedicated to publishing all video content on the Internet. As of February 2023, the site boasted 2.5 trillion active users. A sizable number of creators started their careers on the said platform, and it is difficult to find someone who has never heard of it.
Over the years of the site’s existence, ads have played a huge role in the earnings it generates. However, many users complain that the length and frequency of the ads are unacceptable – some of them last as long as 30 seconds each, which are impossible to skip.
Youtube wants to make it impossible to block ads
A sizable number of Youtube users have decided to fight the massive amount of ads by installing the popular Adblock, which blocks the content displayed before a video is played. However, viewers are beginning to notice an unpleasant message that the ad blocker is not allowed on Youtube.
The news prompts users to switch to Youtube Premium, a service that appeared in 2015 and allows users to bypass ads and even watch videos on blocked phones in exchange for a monthly fee.
Users are not happy with the change, and numerous statements have begun to appear online warning others that it is no longer possible to watch Youtube with an ad blocker.
One ad before each video was ok, but Youtube got seriously greedy and started pushing 30-second ads that you can’t skip. That’s when I just started using adblock. There’s no chance I’ll ever deactivate it or pay for premium.
According to a moderator’s statement on the Youtube subreddit, a platform employee confirmed that this is an “experiment” that the service is currently conducting, and at this point, it has not been implemented for all users.
YouTube has confirmed to us that they are running an experiment.
It must be admitted that watching Youtube without ad blocking can be a nuisance. For the moment, these are only experiments, but if everything works smoothly, the platform may decide to make the blocker permanent. However, there is a high chance that ad-blocking scripts will simply learn to bypass the site’s new algorithms.