Posted on 10/15/2023 1:11:41 PM PDT by ducttape45
The experiment is meant to urge users to disable their ad blockers or subscribe to YouTube Premium.
YouTube is looking to take a more aggressive approach in preventing viewers from using ad blockers while watching videos on its platform. As BleepingComputer reports, people have been posting screenshots on social networks like Reddit that show a pop-up notice warning them that their player will be blocked after three videos.
The warning says YouTube will block their ability to play videos on the platform unless they disable their ad blocker or add the website to their white list. "Ads allow YouTube to stay free for billions of users worldwide," the notice continues. To go ad-free, the company tells users to get a YouTube Premium subscription so "creators can still get paid." Prior to these warnings, YouTube only showed popups to ad blocker users, reminding them that it's against the website's TOS. Eventually, it added a timer to the notices to ensure viewers take the time to read them.
The website has confirmed to BleepingComputer that the new alerts are part of an experiment. A spokesperson told the publication that YouTube is "running a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium." They said that YouTube might temporarily disable playback "[i]n extreme cases, where viewers continue their use of ad blockers." The spokesperson added that they will only disable playback "if viewers ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube," though it's unclear if that means YouTube won't automatically block playback after a viewer watches three videos and will give them more opportunities to comply.
At the moment, this new approach only affects a small number of users, and YouTube didn't say how many people and regions are part of the test. The website, which makes most of its money from ads, has seen its ad revenue decline over the past three quarters, so we won't be surprised if this test expands to more users around the world should it turn out to be effective.
Nope. I also use uBlock Origin adblocker and for really pesky websites, YesScript2 javascript blocker
uBlock is available for all browsers - https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock#ublock-origin
YesScript2 is firefox only - https://github.com/log69/yesscript2
I use Waterfox, a privacy based version of Firefox
Bottom line, I'm getting sick of this. Youtube better knock this off or else I'm closing my YT accounts and staying away from it.
If using Roku, install the Playlet App. It's YouTube with the ads stripped out.
After I accessed it, I turned the blocker back on.
It’s hard to multitask while reading. How am I going to keep up with my conspiracy theories if I can’t run the videos while doing yard work?
We used to have Roku. When we purchased our most recent TV, we were told that Roku was no longer necessary.
Using Freetube on Linux and Newpipe on Android I’ve yet to run into any interference from YouTube, but then I’m a light YT user so maybe they don’t bother with me anyway.
“And charge only US$5.99/month for this version.”
Overall, only a small percentage of users would pay that for content that has been free all this time. I wouldn’t. And they’d sneak in more and more ads over time.
I have Freetube on my machine. I’m still testing it out.
Agreed. I’ll do whatever I can on my end to avoid the ads and if YT makes it impossible to do that, then it’s bye bye YT.
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