YouTube vs ad blockers: towards open warfare? ⚔️

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To watch videos on YouTube, many users use ad blockers. However, YouTube wants to make them inoperative. This week, many users have been confronted with strange behavior from the platform.

Strange behavior 😵‍💫

Ad blockers and YouTube often go hand in hand. However, YouTube is not a fan of the practice. So the platform is stepping up its efforts to prevent the use of ad blockers on its platform. For example, since late 2023, the platform has been displaying an alert message to ad blocker users, asking them to disable them. The message tells users that by doing so, they will be complying with the platform’s terms of use. YouTube’s other hidden objective is to encourage users to take out YouTube Premium subscriptions, which allow them to watch its videos ad-free.

This week, many ad blocker users have reported a strange behavior, to say the least. When the ad blocker is installed, the video goes straight to the end after only a few seconds of viewing. You can see this in the video clip below.

On the other hand, simply uninstalling the blocker allows you to return to normal behaviour.

cSome users are experiencing problems when playing YouTube videos. The video freezes on a loading screen and never starts, even after a long wait. This problem seems to particularly affect search by minute, where users want to go to a specific point in the video.

An intentional YouTube bug or a bug in the ad blockers?🧐

Some users suspect that YouTube is deliberately slowing down the loading of videos to encourage users to subscribe to YouTube Premium. The aim of this strategy is to make the viewing experience less fluid on the free version, thereby encouraging users to switch to the paid version to enjoy ad-free, uninterrupted viewing.

Others are leaning more towards a problem linked to ad blockers. A similar bug occurred earlier this year with AdBlock, causing videos to load more slowly. Initially, YouTube was wrongly blamed, before it was finally discovered that the problem was caused by the AdBlock extension.

For the moment, it is difficult to determine the exact cause of this malfunction. Only time will tell whether the problem stems from an intentional YouTube bug or a new problem with ad blockers. In the meantime, users can try to get around the problem by temporarily disabling their ad blocker or trying another version of the browser.

Do you use an ad blocker? If so, have you encountered the problem? Tell us in comments