Using Adblockers On YouTube? You Might Be Barred From Watching Videos
Using Adblockers On YouTube? You Might Be Barred From Watching Videos
Users are understandably unimpressed with this move.
Image: u/Sazk100 (Reddit)
If you’re a frequent user of the Internet but hates all the sensory distractions (read: ads), you’re on the same boat as me – and perhaps you already have an adblocker in your browser right now to keep your browsing experience a bit more sane. YouTube certainly isn’t fond of the idea though, going by this screenshot posted on Reddit. As seen in the image, the company is testing out blocking users altogether if they are found using adblockers to circumvent against ads.
“It looks like you may be using an ad blocker. Ads allow YouTube to stay free for billions of users worldwide,” reads the prompt. In the event a user stumbles upon this message, they’re left with two choices: either disable adblocker to regain access (and possibly get bombarded with unskippable ads on most videos), or pay for YouTube Premium to watch content without ads getting in the way.
Unsurprisingly, users has voiced concerns for such features getting released in the future. Amongst the reasons include excessive amounts of ads which greatly affects the watching experience, bad content moderation policies on both ads and content itself (which caused false-positive demonetizations) and the lack of pay cut to creators – who often relies on other income sources such as merch or direct monetary support through other platforms.
YouTube has since clarified it is an experiment at current stage. “We’re running a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium,” the company told BleepingComputer. “Ad blocker detection is not new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to disable ad blockers.” That said, adblocker detection is more often seen on news websites, as social media platforms are usually less aggressive on such practices (Facebook, however, has a different strategy to neutralize adblockers by changing code in rapid successions).
Source: BleepingComputer
Pokdepinion: The ads situation honestly got so bad it felt like the pop up ad era all over again. Is it really any less obnoxious than pop out ads?
