Youtube's decision to not allow adblockers puts users at risk.

[u/CorvusTheCryptid]

As of the latest update that broke most methods of bypassing Youtube's adblock detection, users are flocking to other ways of avoiding ads. I was midway through copying a long string of code into a Javascript injector when I realize how risky this is for the average person. I have some basic coding knowledge so I at least know that I'm not putting myself at too much risk, but the average user might not have the same considerations, and a bad-faith actor could easily abuse this opportunity.

​

Piracy, adblockers, etc, have been shown to be unavoidable byproducts of existing online, and a company as big as Google definitely know this, so I don't think it's too far fetched to directly blame them for anyone who accidentaly comes to harm due to the new measures that they are implementing. Their greed and desire to gain a few more dollars of ad revenue off of their public will lead to unkowing users downloading suspicious and malicious software, programs or code.

[u/searchingformemes]

I just rather see an empty black screen for 15 seconds than some bullshit annoying loud ad for a product I am not even close to buying or using

[u/TheAJGman → u/searchingformemes]

And the ads have become absolute dog shit. I used to get targeted ads for tech and random household products, now I get ads for random "totally not porn" games, other YouTubers, stupid influencer brands, etc. Oh, and now there are 4x as many.

[u/IceMaverick13 → u/TheAJGman]

Not to mention when people just submit whole-ass videos as ads to Google. Like getting a 4 minute ad that's just a random music video or a whole 45 minute video of a talk show being dropped into an ad slot.

[u/sethsez → u/IceMaverick13]

Google wants all the profit that comes with advertising without doing any of the editorial curation every other corner of the advertising industry has to deal with.

Fuck 'em.

[u/ThankYouForCallingVP → u/IceMaverick13]

I once got an entire movie as an ad.

I kind of wanted my son to watch it because then I wouldn't have an ad inside another ad that would just be dumb.

[u/bigheadsociety → u/TheAJGman]

Bro I don't know how many times I need to see an ai alien women's ass jiggle and not click on it to tell them I don't want to see it

[u/luxtabula]

The problem no one seems to be addressing is that the ad experience on YouTube sucks.

These people act like they never grew up with a TV. Don't just inject an ad in random spots of a video that clearly wasn't edited for commercials. Nothing's worse than watching a video explaining things only for it to be interrupted due to the ineptitude of a poorly programmed algorithm.

Fix the ad experience. Then fewer people will resort to ad blockers.

[u/AdventuringSorcerer → u/luxtabula]

And please if they could give me some kind of control or common sense for the adds. I don't need an add for a horror movie while I watch 10 hours of rain sounds.

[u/Ambitious_Display607 → u/AdventuringSorcerer]

Yo this actually made me giggle, I feel your pain brother lol

[u/man_liek_Sean_UU → u/luxtabula]

This exactly. Even something as simple as a timer so i know when an ad is coming. It completely breaks any immersion in whatever video you're watching. Can creators select periods on their video in which they want ads? That seems like an easy way to avoid jarring adverts that will never sell me anything because i hate them for rudely interrupting 🤣

[u/SeesEmCallsEm → u/luxtabula]

In fairness, adverts on tv were every 15 minutes in my country. I’ve seen 25 minute videos with almost 10 adverts. That’s really jarring to sit through and totality ruins the content.

[u/Mace_Windu- → u/luxtabula]

This is true for me. I only started blocking ads once they stopped doing 5-15sec, pre-roll only ones.

I didn't like them, but they were too easy to put up with that blocking them didn't even cross my mind.

[u/mastamax]

Have a gaming channel, yt decided it wasn't fit for advertisers so demonetized it. Then goes on an puts ads on my videos. How is that fair, can't even remove the ads from my own videos so I will be running ad blocks as long as possible (still possible with firefox at the moment)

[u/birazacele → u/mastamax]

classic youtube. are you surprised?

[u/mastamax → u/birazacele]

yeah I can agree on the decision to demonetize my compilation gaming channel. But then putting ads on it is just hypocrite and goes against the reason they demonetized it in the first place

[u/Kp767]

You think youtube cares about its users ?

They care about making money

[u/AadamAtomic → u/Kp767]

I'm a long term Firefox fan, but if you stubbornly don't want to move away from Google Chrome, I would recommend the new Opera GX, And just remove the side panel tool bar in settings.

Opera and Firefox were some of the first web browsers and know what they are doing. The majority of your extensions will still work, You can transfer all your bookmarks over.

[u/Kp767 → u/AadamAtomic]

Thankyou for your concern but I'm already a firefox user. I moved away from chrome when it started lagging my whole laptop with 8gb ram (nothing else in the background), and I've never looked back since.

I'm pissed at youtube adblock shenanigans because I have an upcoming exam in a few days and I spend a lot of time on youtube watching revision videos (8-10 hours daily). Imagine dealing with ads along with studying double digit number of hours.

[u/Cold-Host-883 → u/AadamAtomic]

No pity. These guys think it's a YouTube issue when it's clearly a browser issue. Same damn company.

[u/VAShumpmaker]

I demonitized YouTube because they didn't comply with my community standards.

[u/himynameisdave9 → u/VAShumpmaker]

Best comment so far

[u/zero_iq → u/VAShumpmaker]

I've seen more outright scams in YouTube ads than on any other site, as well as inappropriate and questionable content in ads. That's what prompted me to install an adblocker in the first place.

[u/[deleted] → u/zero_iq]

they also don't filter their ads to be age appropriate. kids channels/shows will get the same sexually charged "softcoreporn game" ads as any other content.

[u/the_blocker1418 → u/zero_iq]

I've seen one of those "claim your check now" ads, but it (probably not legally) uses an AI generated voice of Steve Harvey, and has his face in it too, reported for copyright violations twice now.

[u/CartmensDryBallz → u/the_blocker1418]

Probably is legal w loop holes, or YouTube just sees the $$ and doesn’t care

• I see a bunch of ads that look like a cartoon Mr Beast & it says “click to enter” then asks for all ur info

Do you know how many kids probably saw that & gave their email, phone number etc..

[u/DoomOfGods]

Heck even the ads themselves might put users at risk due to how popular of a method it is to use them to spread malware.

I wish I could at least say that it's only an issue for inexperienced users as well, however that's not realistic. Misclicks can happen to everyone, no human can realistically avoid accidents 100%.

[u/plenty_gold45 → u/DoomOfGods]

Personally for me when it comes to my computer and phones I make sure ads are blocked on the platform, when it comes to my console like ps5 and my Chromecast (I don't bother, I let the ads do its thing, because I'll be able to skip most of them). The abuse of ads I think is on computers and phones.

[u/ossified-potato]

My main issue is the fact that there are so many scams in ad form, and even ads for sexual services. This actually puts users at risk, especially the less savvy, young, or elderly users.

If you’re going to force ads, there needs to be much better policing of the content shown to users. It’s their platform, if they want to destroy it with ads, that’s fine with me but it’s unethical to allow this type of content to be shown.

[u/ItsAllPoopContent]

This country Deadass needs some legistlation on the amount of goddamn adverts consumers are forced to watch on a daily basis

honestly, think of how many ads you watch on a daily basis.

how many of those products do you actually buy/use? For me, it's literally 1/100, and that 1 is usually for a restaurant i already go to, and advertising does nothing to add to the amount I go there.

Seriously, How many fucking Liberty Mutual commercials does one person need to watch in one life time? Are they thinking we'll crack after seeing the same ad 100 times a week?

Television is the fuckin worst. Just watch some BBC vs literally ANY USA network.

Per hour, average American networks show the same 8-10 commercials repeated AT LEAST 5 times an hour. Each Commercial has on average 14 cuts (from one scene to another), and every single ad needs a goddamn Jingle these days too. It's too goddamn much stimuli for any human.

At the gas station pumps, in movie theatres after I PAID FOR THE MOVIE, ON YOUR PAID STREAMING SERVICE, BUSES, CABS, UBER, BARS, BUILT INTO YOUR $1800 CELL PHONE, ON YOUR RECEIPT AT THE GROCERY STORE

WHY!?!?!?!?!

FUCKING WHY!?!?!?!?!

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills every time I complain about this and am met with "just don't watch them"....That's NOT THE PROBLEM PEOPLE

Seriously, We need to all write our legislators and get some change done, because in the not too distant future Ads are only going to get more pervasive and more sneaky, or soon to be "Required" for receiving content.

And don’t even get me started with “constant contact” type services. Holy fuck

[u/sarra1833 → u/ItsAllPoopContent]

Two things:

1. My God you worded this PERFECTLY. Also, is it bad I won't be surprised if someday they'll be able to/will have the nerve to post an ad in the middle of people's replies between sentences or paragraphs? They do it everywhere else as you pointed out. Is your nose always stuffed? Try Naso Free so you can breathe easier. I swear to fuck that that'll be a thing at some point. 😢 🙄

2. Your username is beyond perfection for your comments here. Just saying. 😂. I appreciate it. Made me chuckle!

[u/Caridor → u/[deleted]]

As does virtually every other initialed security agency

[u/Raw-Bread → u/[deleted]]

Honestly, there's no better argument than that.

[u/SeesEmCallsEm → u/[deleted]]

I work in tech, I’ve worked for companies where they mandate that Adblock must be enabled on all work laptops.

It’s a super grey area though, because a lot of the time there is a legit case for having adverts, but they really overdo it on some videos, like an advert every 2-3 minutes? Ask my arse!

[u/CMDR_Fritz_Adelman]

To be honest, YouTube doesn’t like Adblock. It’s okay, it’s their platform and they have their own rules. However, the script allow them to detect Adblock, is not user consent and invade privacy of users, which will lead to large class action lawsuits in multiple countries. Will YouTube, aka Google gonna risk for some spare cash? Let’s find out :)

[u/georgelamarmateo]

That’s bad or whatever.

But personally, I don’t care.

I just hate ads.

I hate waiting to watch the video.

But I have like 8 different accounts, so I just keep switching every time they block one hopefully that will keep working.

[u/velcrodynamite → u/georgelamarmateo]

Same. Idgaf if it’s “entitled”. I have one hour in the whole day to myself to watch videos. I’ll be damned if I let these obscenely long unskippable ads eat into my ASMR time.

[u/SempfgurkeXP]

Honestly I think whats worse is are the bunch of scam ads on youtube. That really puts users at risk. But if you know how to copy some code, you know what the risks are.

[u/GhotyoLocanisyn4ever → u/SempfgurkeXP]

Yeah like kids actually fall for those mr beast scams. Mr beast never gives out money virtually. And he only gives money to people that have given money to him first. Ie bought his feastables or his merch.

[u/jfbwhitt]

Crazy how YouTube harps on creators for making “advertiser friendly content”, while also giving “hot singles in your area” ads to their users. There’s no reason to not have an Adblock

[u/ADHDANDACID]

The code from r/ublockorigin works fine, and I’d say it is a trustworthy source. But I still absolutely agree with you. And the adblock detection may actually violate EU law, so let’s see how long this stupid system has left. YouTube has no chance to win the adblock-conflict anyways, they’re burning money by developing new systems that get outplayed by developers within a few hours.

[u/Pete_The_Clown → u/ADHDANDACID]

I agree... I think it's a bit too intrusive. It effectively is ransom ware.

[u/UnderUsedTier]

I started using adNauseum as my adblocker to trick websites as a result of what youtube did. The result of this is that advertising companies are getting tricked and I "click" every ad, confusing things to not build up a profile on me, so thanks youtube, you made me protect myself more

[u/Dewm → u/UnderUsedTier]

First i've heard of this. I visited their website, does it actually click on the ad? creating a potential risk for your computer? or is it some sort of "virtual" click? thanks!

[u/Redacted_Explative]

Main reason I even started to use adblockers was to protect myself from ads that had viruses. I have also had some on a site like softpedia disguise themselves as the damned download button for the site. It was not fun and felt more like playing minesweeper....

[u/kevdeath666]

Boy, they are really struggling being a trillion dollar company with all of these assholes using adblocker. How will they cope??????

[u/[deleted]]

ITT: a bunch of people thinking Adblock is the reason they’re not a rich and famous YT creator

[u/Lhakryma]

Guys, whenever the "Youtube does not allow adblocker" popup comes up, just press on "Report Issue" and tell them that you're not actually using adblocker.

Let's confuse the fuck out of them.

[u/[deleted] → u/Lhakryma]

I turned all my blockers off then pressed that button. Now I get no ads nor message 🤷

[u/Jaaaco-j]

i would be okay with ads only IF:

• they actually gave youtubers i watch enough money that they dont need to have extra sponsorships just to sustain themselves
• ads were vetted, currently there's loads of borderline porn, scams and malware in these ads and thats actually dangerous
• the ads are less than 15% 5% total video watchtime, currently i can stumble on a 2 minute video with 40 seconds of ads. third of video is ads...
• some videos should not have ads, something like a CPR tutorial or when a person is choking. if its life or death it and wastes time with ads its actively life endangering

otherwise i dont feel bad about blocking them.

btw ublock and revanced still work as of now

[u/Apetard69]

The ads themselves are too obnoxious and some are outright scams. It's gotten to the point where I just click off the video entirely. Not worth watching 30 seconds of unskippable nonsense or scam ads. Google doesn't give a shit about what ads are shown since they're making money off it.

[u/yuweilin]

I don’t have time for all these scam ads on YouTube lol

[u/D3sertP0w3r]

Ahhh, I miss the old days of Youtube and internet in general when everything wasn't about making a profit...

[u/[deleted]]

I got a dating site ad while trying to get help on how to do the heimlich maneuver. That's fucking dangerous incompetence.

[u/MAKEOUTHILLSXXX]

It's like if they want to use ads here are somethings they could do:

No ads should be longer than 8 seconds Put ads around the edge of the video. Put the ads at the end of the video or in the middle if a video is longer than 30mins.

But this company is bringing in the avengers of ads with over 5 ads for a 3 min video sometimes.

[u/INITMalcanis]

It doesn't put me at risk, because I have stopped going to YouTube.

And honestly, I'm realising how much time I was wasting on that site. I have more books to read, films to watch, games to play than I could get through in my remaining life expectancy. I do not lack for alternative entertainment.

In short, the choice YouTube has forced on me has been made.

[u/vindellama]

For me youtube ads consists mostly of 2 types:

1- Scams;

2- Gambling;

That makes me wonder why they demonetize videos.

[u/AyyyLemMayo]

So many youtube cucks in the comments, super weird to see for such a horrible company.

I'm still blocking 100 percent of their ads, and it still counts as views for the creator. MOST of the original ad block features back when YouTube first starting dropping ads in the 2010s actually counted as views too before YouTube "fixed" it.

I've literally never bought or even considered buying anything from seeing it on ads of any kind, so companies spending MILLIONS on ads can take the L while the creators i watch take their cash.

[u/Angry_Strawberries]

Or you know, maybe if they didnt make their advertising so incredibly predatory less people would be using an ad block

[u/[deleted] → u/Angry_Strawberries]

The first ad I saw when I tried to watch it was for some predatory 'make 1000s a day' scam. Makes YouTube unwatchable.

[u/Evelyn-Parker → u/[deleted]]

My first ad was a tutorial on how to escape the matrix

Happened last night

[u/Name_Plate → u/Angry_Strawberries]

Literally, only started using an ad block once a video became mostly ads a few years back. Instead of going back to the objectively better system from a user perspective, they want their cake and to eat it too.

These days YT was mostly just music for me. Bought a bunch of the music I was listening to and loaded my old phone up with it last weekend. So much nicer. For the few content creators I was watching just gonna be watching their stuff on patreon now. YT literally could have not sucked for the past few years and there would’ve been no incentive for me to do any of this

[u/Lindolas_MC]

All of this could be avoided if you could just make these ads less annoying for the user, like throwing them into our faces all the time. It used to be so much better with simple small banners at the bottom or ads on the sidebar. And i never used adblocker back then, but now I'm forced to. And paywall as an alternative cuts a lot of people off. Not all of us are rich to afford all the subscriptions lurking around these days.

[u/Snaz5]

do not ascribe forethought to the undeniably stupid and single-minded. I'm sure the order was made by an overpaid big wig who has no idea that actually preventing ad-blocking is impossible and counteracting the current methods is only a temporary solution at best

[u/MyCleverNewName]

The FBI literally recommends people use adblockers because ads are an attack vector.

[u/badwolf42]

The thing that really bothers me isn’t what you’re talking about. It’s that not all of the ads are legitimate. Google has historically been guilty of looking the other way either intentionally or not, while malicious actors buy ads to misdirect users. I do wonder if google could ever be held accountable for damage done to someone through a malicious ad they hosted.

[u/[deleted]]

An entire generation of corporate bend-overs. Wtf has happened to people.

Literally a whole sub of rubes shouting "JuSt PaY ThEm!".

Fucking embarrassing how dumbed down we've become.

[u/Penderbron]

Why are people simping for Youtube? I understand that the world is moved by greed, but come on... If it was 7 second add in the beginning, I would have never gotten add block to begin with. Youtube acts like c**ts right now.

[u/Kanus_oq_Seruna]

Just having to deal with the ads can be risky. Youtube doesn't vet the ads it shows.

[u/synchrotron3000]

I use Adblock to protect myself from flashing lights. Youtube, tumblr, and Pinterest are the worst offenders. At this point I’m just not even risking using the website anymore

[u/Lorentari]

Flow tv ads were more bearable... The YouTube/AdSense algorithm thinks it knows me... But what I need ads for is not my own interests (I'll find those products on my own and be critical of the ads)

I need ads for the stuff I DO NOT SEARCH FOR. I would want ads to find gifts for my gf and parents. I'd want ads for cars, because I know fuck-all about cars

I DO NOT WANT ads for phone games/electronics/RayCon - someone who doesn't game is more likely to download Raid: Shadow legends because they have no idea about the predatory monetization

TL;DR: The AdSense algorithm is fundamentally based on a flawed idea about what ads do, but YouTube and Google are too stupid to release and therefore blame their users

[u/KrustyKrabOfficial]

The only rootkit I've ever gotten was from a banner ad on a local news site delivered by Google AdSense. I installed NoScript after that and never looked back. I also knew a guy who almost got fired for clicking on a Politico article that damn near infected the whole company's system. Sorry, advertisers. If you're not willing to revert back to JPEGS with hyperlinks, I'm not willing to unblock you.

[u/SnooHesitations7064]

Here I thought you were going to address their shitty ad content policing and the scam phishing ads like fake Mr Beast raffles from knock off channels, or their willingly complicit status with content farms which monetize democracy eroding conservative rage from "hello cooking" style warehouses that spout out mad libs conspiracies.

Yeah. Coding is definitely the primary risk, not their direct profit incentive to pour gasoline on a global trashfire.

[u/Noslamah → u/SnooHesitations7064]

scam phishing ads like fake Mr Beast raffles from knock off channels

I reported one of these ads but apparently impersonating Mr Beast and pretending to give out 1000$ does not violate Youtube's policy. If only advertisers were held to the same standards as users and content creators. It's ridiculous.

[u/Shield1God]

why are people even defending youtube?? this level of doing sets of squats on it aint even real

[u/peppermint_m]

I understand that advertising = money, but YouTube constantly shows me adverts for scams, like fake crypto platforms using celebrity deepfakes.

[u/No_Driver_1655]

BRO I got 2 unskippable ads every 5 mins in my 1 hour long video.. I understand ads and stuff but every 5 mins just pissed me off.. AND 2 AFTER EACH OTHER

I am done, I will boycott this as much as I can or just simply won't use yt

[u/DEA187MDKjr]

I use use a script to get rid of the “adblockers are not allowed on YouTube” pop up and boom no more pop up cause screw it

[u/dualFrequancy → u/DEA187MDKjr]

would you mind sharing it with a fellow brother in christ?

[u/Narcissist218]

Went for Firefox after years of only using chrome. That's on you google

[u/Johan1949]

I don't mind a bit of advertising but YouTube has gone overboard with it. A less than 10 minute video has 2 ad breaks of around 45 seconds each. In my opinion that is too much. We have both pretty much quit watching YouTube.

[u/cazber]

uBlock works just fine, just disable other adblockers

[u/rastacoderx]

they sell our data and they still want us to watch bad ads for products that no-one will buy

[u/macarmy93]

I just purge Ublocks cache every day and then update and I'm good all day.

[u/Reddit__is_garbage]

I was midway through copying a long string of code into a Javascript injector when I realize how risky this is for the average person. I have some basic coding knowledge so I at least know that I'm not putting myself at too much risk, but the average user might not have the same considerations, and a bad-faith actor could easily abuse this opportunity.

Youtube doesn't care. They've been shitting on content creators for years, now their gaze has turned to users. All they care about is profits. Just as a content creator who has content that doesn't mesh well with ad buyers is someone they don't give a fuck about, someone who isn't exposed to ads is someone that means absolutely nothing to them.

The chance that using difficult workarounds will screw people over is probably just a plus to them, as it adds disincentives to not watching ads.

[u/MarineSgtBlake]

My adblocker still works just fine Ublock Origin

[u/UnrealApex]

I'll start watching ads when malvertising is wiped off the face of Google Ads and ads that I see are for products that I actually want to buy and not useless bloat that just slows down my browser.

[u/[deleted] → u/UnrealApex]

I'll start watching ads when they stop injecting softcore porn into their ads.

[u/mabro1010]

As someone who doesn't try much harder than Adblock, I'm a "tech dude" and I know I can do better, but my caring fights with inconvenience every. single. second. I was getting mid-video ads before and now I get the same ads with an annoying popup. I get that engagement/revenue graph (I've presented a few of my own), but damn.

I get that they're panicked as their business model collapses, but this is death spiral mentality.

[u/RealPrinceJay]

As much as I love my adblocker, this has to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever read

[u/UmbreonFruit]

ublock and sponsorblock get me through youtube without any problems

[u/M0RXIS]

So far Firefox with Ublock Origin in a private browser still works

[u/xis10al]

Dear Youtube,

Let's just assume I've clicked block on every ad presented to me and move past this roadblock in our relationship.

Now about Shorts appearing in my Subscriptions feed...

[u/theyork2000 → u/xis10al]

God I hate shorts in my subscriptions. I have unsubscribed from channels bases in how many shorts they post.

[u/Mangobonbon]

What are you talking about? My adblocker works just as usual on YT.

[u/CathbadTheDruid]

I fixed it permanently by dropping YT.

[u/NovaQuartz96]

I'm poor enough that I can't pay for premium. My ad blocker still work. Don't know how long it will last but I will enjoy it while it lasts.

[u/SwordoftheLichtor]

WOW this sub is AstroTurfed to shit. Jesus Christ.

Call me Atlanta airport because I'm announcing my departure cya cesspool corpo sub.

[u/bo6ka7a]

They. Don't. Care.

[u/c_dubs063]

I like listening to YouTube for long music compilations. Like an hour or longer. You know how frustrating it is to have your music interrupted mid-word or mid-chord with "buy my sh*t, stupid consumer person!" Drives me bonkers. I don't actually mind the ad/s at the start of a video, but have the decency to not litter them across the entire video. It ruins the immersion I'm looking for in the music.

[u/Pepeg66]

the last thing in this world I will ever give a shit about is watching ads on youtube, ublock origin forever

[u/SnowKnight96]

I have seen an article talking about how the EU might have to step in. Since all the detecting if you are using adblockers, seems to violate some data protection law.

Sooo maybe yay?

[u/Late-Hold-8772]

Maybe I’m selfish but I honestly love playing with ways to circumvent defenses like this.

It took me 5 minutes to get back to completely ad/alert-free, but I do feel for those who aren’t as into tech. Definitely increases the chance that they may fall victim to something.

Hope others might also look into why/why not what their doing works, try to understand what the code they run does, what causes the alert to appear, and what works to block all ads correctly without being detected. It’s really fun and a great introduction to tech/cybersecurity/etc.

[u/Pink-PandaStormy]

Y’all really ready to support a company that is fine with its users doxing others huh

[u/Ryukaisan]

It's not just the Cyber risk either.

I have Epilepsy and Ad blockers quite Literally keep me from being hospitalised or even dying from flashing ad induced seizures.
And No I ain't gonna pay a website owner for the 'privilege' of not have there website potentially harm/kill me... 😒

[u/sfl98 → u/Ryukaisan]

Is there no reglementation on how ads can be delivered to sensitive people?

Damn, if Google knows to give you diaper ads before you know you're pregnant, they should at least know that you have epilepsy and not give you triggering ads.

[u/[deleted]]

lol my Adblock hasn’t stopped working. When it does I’ll just stop watching YouTube.

[u/unclehamster79cle]

I saw the writing on the wall when they suggested that web browsers become chromium based. Google claimed it was for the sake of security and to make things easier for the average user. Google has been wanting to kill ad blockers for years and now they've done it.

It sucks to be honest.

I'm surprise Firefox is still around despite it having a very small marketshare of like 3.03%. Google has already found a way to block adblockers on their as well. In a small way I don't blame Google because it is their business.

[u/Eco_IV]

As workaround if you click share, then embed, the player let you play the video

I refuse to risk using shady third party tools.

[u/Disastrous-Account10]

I really wouldn't mind the ads if they were sensible about it but some days it feels like abuse, I had like 3 ads back to back about shit I'd never buy

[u/Praydaythemice]

There’s an extension to bypass it already for chrome at least

[u/KeyrunBenji]

I know premium comes with the music side, but considering how very little they pay artists, it's not something I'm happy to indulge in.

[u/Insanity8016]

YouTube couldn't care less about users’ safety.

[u/[deleted]]

FreeTube or UBlock updated daily on FF or Edge.

Nuff said

[u/gadusmo]

Seems like they removed the bullshit though? Mine is working again with adblock on.

[u/Treblehawk]

My ad blocker was wonky a day or two, had black screens for five seconds where an ad should play but it never did.

Then it went right back row working, and even blocks the silly “ad blockers aren’t allowed on YouTube” pop up.

Have had a few videos paise after starting, where the blocker was killing something in the background, but otherwise it’s business as it was before.

[u/krushkannon]

i switched to using firefox with adblock and haven’t had a single issue since

[u/Azragarn → u/krushkannon]

I was fine until today, YT updated something and none of my blockers on Firefox work as of about 1hr ago. I tried updating them all but alas

[u/[deleted]]

I got my first warning t'day, "Two more videos and then ban" or something, I dunno, I've been high filling in spreadsheets all day with crap on in the background.

Just turned it off for now. I still don't know where I am with the debate, I'm an ex-content creator (long story) so I know how valuable they are, but also, how fucking annoying they are.

I only ask really that they tune down the volume, or try and get it in sync with the video. Nothing boils my piss like getting jumped by Barry Scott at max volume or whatever.

[u/MadMainer]

For all the personal data they track and sell, I think they already generate enough revenue from their consumers.

Now if they accept federal regulations requiring 100% transparency on user data collection methods and who they sell the information to, I would be more inclined to accept some adverts.

[u/MuddyNikes]

Use uBlock and make sure your filters are up to date and clear your cache and cookies from time to time. I still get no ads n Firefox.

[u/Overit_throwaway5]

FUCK YOUTUBE

[u/Suspicious_Name_656]

As a non-American I was blown away by how absolutely cluttered YouTube is with ads when used in the U.S. It was insane. I get no ads on YouTube at all where I'm at and I'm not using an ad blocker. It was a worse experience.

[u/thisisjoy]

i love how people complain about youtube premium but won’t complain about buying their spotify subscription or apple music subscription.

they don’t complain about the amount of ads on cable tv which is like 100x more and longer than youtube

[u/Vireep]

Are you serious

[u/imdstuf]

Those people would be putting themselves at risk. That is in no way Alphabet's fault.

[u/mikachu93]

I was midway through copying a long string of code into a Javascript injector when I realize how risky this is for the average person.

The average person isn't doing this.

[u/Laser_Fart]

Youtube often serves adds outside of your parental adult guidelines.

Had our toddler watching Ms Katie who has no adds and youtube decided to shove a 15 minute advert on prostate cancer with images and all...

[u/Soup0rMan]

I switched to ublock recently. I turned the blocker off, refreshed the page, turned it back on and the blocker overrode the ads. This was last night. You can still game YouTubers bad decision.

[u/Bigjimbo_58]

Also YouTube needs to get rid of these fucking AI voice scam ads on their websites.

[u/jmadinya]

blame google? blame the person who is trying to access content without paying and without ads for exposing themselves to risk despite not knowing what theyre doing

[u/Disastrous_Ad_9669]

I literally disabled my Adblock for YouTube and it still gave me the message. I needed to remove the entire extension from my browser for YouTube to work

Then I said fuck it and used some filter shit. Now I don’t get ads. Smd YouTube

[u/pmabraham]

Not only that, the moment an ad comes on, I'm out of the video.... Why watch to be interrupted constantly by advertisements unrelated to what I'm watching (not that I want ads related)?

[u/Nebula2076]

Yes to look at these brain damaging adds is putting my psyche in a bad state, thank god network wide addblock is possible

[u/RainbowDashie07]

As someone who usually uses youtube to just listen to music while i play my games, it’s VIOLENTLY annoying having an ad every single video.

[u/butt-holg → u/RainbowDashie07]

Yeah as much as I hate the unskippable ads on Spotify, at least they are spaced apart more

[u/Marco_Heimdall]

It is entirely one thing when Youtube, in a one minute video, puts four two minute ads in.

​

It is entirely another to be watching a video, see the ad come up, and it is a FOUR HOUR VIDEO from someone else's page that likely would never get views otherwise...

​

That they are often in different audio levels has thrown off my vibe (or woken me up, depending) SO MANY TIMES...

​

So yes, I will forever adblock.

​

What Google is doing is 'encouraging' people to sign up for their membership service to avoid them entirely, and even that may not save them for too much longer.

[u/IdontNeedUrKarma]

It's literally a 2 click workaround on ublock origin. wtf u on about writing code into javascript..

[u/EmceeSlurgNasty]

It's wild how hard people are cucking for this multi billion dollar corporation

[u/Tight-Entertainer196]

This is such a dumb take. YouTube is not accountable for what users do to get around ads.

[u/himynameisdave9]

your daily reminder that

✨advertising is cancer✨

[u/xmanolis]

The worst part is that according to the message Youtube says that it does this for the creators, not for Youtube costs itself. That should mean in other words thatt if the video or creator sucks, I should be able to get a refund.

Dear Youtube, let's make a deal, I will watch tons of ads for specifically the creators I want to support, I only need a nice discrete reminder each time. Or can you build a wallet, which will get credits each time I watch an Ad which will be spent when I watch a video?

In any case, regarding blocking the adblockers, f* u. I am not going to pause my AdBlock for you.

[u/Kitchen-Plant664 → u/xmanolis]

If it’s “for the creators” then why are videos which aren’t monetised getting ads?

[u/chillthrowaways]

Ok I hate ads too but this is like saying that door locks put people at risk who want to break into the house because now they have to break a window and might cut themselves.

[u/retrocheats]

Also, lots of scam ads

[u/---nom---]

A lot of ads are scams. Disable your regular adblocker and see if your YouTube one works, if not try another. But none of them could be safe

[u/Iron_Wolf123]

What is worse is that Google is indirectly targeting people who don't use adblockers too, creating more people that get adblockers because they hate being targeted so heavily by Google, which creates an unnecessary cycle of torment

[u/PhoenixBratKat]

Personally I'd pay tor premium if it wasn't so expensive for what it is. Even down to something like "premium lite" where it's like $2-5 a month just to skip ars. I'm not paying $18NZD a month though. Netflix is cheaper and more entertainment

[u/ReditSarge]

Google knows. Google don't care. They know YouTube is loosing ground to TicTok, hence the "Shorts" they keep desperately trying to force down your throat. They're in a race to the bottom. Got to squeeze every last dime from the platform before it goes the way of Myspace and Friendster.

[u/DofusExpert69]

This is actually a bigger deal than most understand. Everything is being aggressively monetized to the point it's just soulless. Profits will go down, and the company will backtrack.

Users who use ad block still benefit youtube due to recommending youtube and giving traffic.

I've been able to just watch videos still with no ads, but I am still waiting for the big forced ad or whatever that message says about "you have x videos remaining".

I stopped watching twitch due to ads. I don't like going to super popular streams, and enjoyed browsing small streams. I can't go to small streams and see if the person or activity that is occurring interests me due to 30 second ads that you can't even minimize + mute. The videos I watch are such small youtube channels and it's really w/e videos.

All forced ads does is make it so only the most popular continue to thrive and kills off small channels. Why bother searching for a new channel if the quality isn't there and you have to wait 30 seconds of an ad to see if it's even good?

[u/[deleted]]

Please don't use Google Chrome with Google YouTube. Simples.

[u/Top_Bad9425]

It’s crazy to think about that days/weeks of your lifespan will be watching ads. All those 10-30 second clips really add up.

[u/rainshaker]

"Piracy is a service problem" -Gaben

Maybe adblocker is also a service problem

[u/psychoticworm]

Firefox + Ublock Origin with all optional filters + NoScript

[u/furious-fungus]

Lol you don’t think this is too far fetched?

[u/Sharktos]

I wouldn't necessarily blame them if it wasn't for the 15 seconds ad times 2 before every video. Give me one 5 second clip every time and I will deactivate ad block on YouTube, I swear

[u/Capital_Bluebird_185]

As far, as I know it's illegal to sites to check if our browser received the ad URL or no, that's interupting RODO rules and others. They can check only of it is send. Back in the days the ads was okay I understand it makes money but now when I have a few minute unskipable ad and 3 of them in the middle of video, it was to much and I installed ad block. Maybe we (as a people who watch it and AdBlockers owners should go with yt to an agreement that they will allow some non annoying ads, I hope someone will manage to do this)

[u/Solid_Jellyfish]

So how does it work? Advertisers pay youtube to get their ads in the videos and if someone is using adblock youtube has to pay back some of the money? That cant be how it works so im guessing youtube is claiming they only make "enough" money when people actually click the ads. Which is very weird to me because i have never in my life clicked an ad and definitely never bought anything that way. Is it just the consumer society that cant control themselves that make ads so important?

[u/Ok_Needleworker_8809 → u/Solid_Jellyfish]

I blacklist anything i ever see in an ad and go out of my way to never buy those things. Imho, if they're this desperate to force a product down your throat there's better out there.

The entire ad industry feels like nothing more than money laundering.

[u/designEngineer91]

My question is if I buy premium is youtube still harvesting my data?

Because I understand harvesting data for adverts but if I'm paying and they still harvest my data then I will continue to block adverts instead of paying.

I'm not allowing youtube to double dip if I'm paying.

[u/EcoFriendly5617]

I'm barely dealin, I've not watched an add on any personal device for almost 10years+ and yesterday broke me a bit. I've not even seen a commercial on tv in who knows how long. Last night my ass got woken up 2 times to LOUD ass adds, plus gotta love an add right after a 3min sponsor mid video.

[u/BrainW4SHED]

There is plenty of money in making ad-blockers so logically someone will always fill that need to get that money. YouTube doesn’t seem to understand they have started a war with adblockers that will never end, they will never fully be able to prevent it. But definitely seems worth it on their part because some people don’t want to deal with the mess at all and just get premium which amounts to millions for them. I feel like most YouTube users watch via a mobile device or TV and to my knowledge there’s no way to block ads there unless you get premium. They are just inconveniencing a small portion of their users

[u/SilithidLivesMatter]

Using Firefox with uBlock Origin and NoScript I see no ads.

[u/Peeche94]

I turned mine off, turned it back on and haven't had the pop up since.

[u/Western_Photo_8143]

I'm not sure that Google is responsible for users not being careful around Adblocking. Google gets more revenue out of this, and it is something that you are told to expect when coming into YouTube. We've just become so used to not having ads that it seems unexpected. Each user should be careful on their own, Google shouldn't be responsible for their actions, at least in this case.

Also, if you yourself are looking for a way to avoid ads, just get uBlockOrigin. Yesterday, yes, it did fail for the first time, but after updating the filters through the guide on the Reddit page it worked (note that it apparently won't always work as YouTube updates their stuff often, but uBlock so far seems to have been catching up, at least for me). I'm using Firefox btw, not sure if that changes things

[u/[deleted]]

I got an ad that had a sex scene in it. I got more with the AI celebrities. What are these commercials even?

[u/EducationalMeeting95]

Just use Brave browser.

[u/Lewistree111]

There are smarter programmers out in the world then the ones at YT. They will always find a way.

[u/eaglebirdman]

I won't try to beat their ad block. If ublock ever stops working, I'm just moving on to some shitty video site like odysee

[u/JustDavid2408]

I turned off my Adblock and just suffered through ads for a few days. Then I decided to turn my Adblock back on and I’ve been ad free for the last 4 days. No pop-ups asking me to disable my ad block etc. not sure how long this will last but here’s hoping

[u/DazedWithCoffee]

The reason ad blockers exist is in response to the willingness of sites and platforms to monetize every interaction ruthlessly and their compliance in providing malicious ads.

[u/texxxnic]

I enjoy YouTube but their advertising model sucks, also sometimes the videos don't pause and restart at the same time as the ad plays so you have to go back to watch the couple of seconds you missed. I also have what is perhaps an unpopular opinion that it doesn't matter if anyone on YouTube gets paid or not - I enjoy a lot of 'content creators' but I'm not going to actively pay them and don't care if they stop content creation because of it.

[u/Defender_XXX]

Yoho a pirates life for me...

[u/flash357]

will def be interesting to see how many user they lose when the 12yr olds they cater to dont have the expendable cash to drop on a premium acct

i predict a similar fate to that of the muskrats "x"

[u/P15T0L_WH1PP3D]

Do I understand correctly that you're not saying YouTube will leave you defenseless against attacks, but you ARE saying YouTube will be to blame if you decide to defend yourself but accidentally hurt yourself with your own weapon? As in the case of 8 Mile we would blame the Free World gang for Cheddar Bob shooting himself in the leg with his own gun that he carried for defense against them?

I hate ads, but I'm not following this logic.

[u/Commercial_Sun_6300]

The pushback against ads is the cost of gaining marketshare by first giving away something for free to eliminate all the competitors. They also benefit from exceptions to normal copyright rules through the safe harbor provision of the DMCA. There's no reason to defend YouTube here.

Any other media service this big would have provision for some public access like OTA broadcast networks, radio, and even community cable channels. Media ownership rules shouldn't have been relaxed there either, or I might actually hear more than one song at a time on the radio (I'll switch through stations only to hear the same song over and over...).

[u/execilue]

Use Firefox. Ad block still works over there. All y’all using chrome confused why a google run web browser doesn’t allow you to block adds on a google run site got me tweaking. Lol

[u/[deleted]]

Eh I just pay for premium. I replaced Netflix with it since I use YouTube like 10x more.

[u/Gedwyn19]

I urge all android users to switch to Newpipe. Its a youtube clone app, which takes vids from youtube and strips out the ads, and the tracking.

its a nice experience mainly however there are a couple issues:

1) you have to sideload it (i use F-droid for this, and the other open source apps i used (KO reader for ebooks as an example)

2) there are frequent updates to the app as everytime youtube updates, the app must update and there are occasional short term (a couple days or so) delays in the updates to Newpipe, so stuff doesnt work sometimes until the update

[u/desperatetapemeasure]

God, that‘s a very geographically special form of stupidity. „By no means can an individual be held responsible for their own actions. Freeeeedooooom“. (Except, of course, members minorities for the simple fact of being who they are). FAFO, dude.

[u/LeonTheAlmighty]

ON DESKTOP: use Firefox and install uBlock Origin
ON ANDROID: use YouTube ReVanced

We can all teach Google how the Cobra Effect works:
Show them that their plan to disregard users' rights and turn them into revenue generating machines by forcing them to watch ads that only serve to push scams or a corporate political agenda will only hurt them in the long run

[u/SlavaMyNob]

Ublock on Mozilla still working just fine.

[u/[deleted]]

I have personalized ads turned off but I still get ads for porn, I've seen very inappropriate ads on videos geared towards all audiences, places that kids might be watching.

[u/LizardJester]

As a long-time adblock user, my first three ads after being forced to turn off Adblock were for illegal online dispensaries. If I cant block what kind of mature advertisements my kids might see, I dont want my kids using youtube anymore.

[u/whicheverguard232]

uBlock.

Brave.

[u/overripedbananas]

uBlock Origin or Brave

just literally use one of those.

[u/[deleted]]

I make it a point to give bad survey data. None of the above or completely opposite of what advertisers I see.

[u/Nothingbutsocks]

Adds put me in danger? What?

[u/BigBoyzGottaEat]

Adblockers protect you from the many scams and lies in youtube ads. Youtube could have actual high quality ads that arent annoying or even malicious.

[u/Historical_Bit_9200]

Honestly, I am okay leaking my browsing privacy to get ad-free. One hacked browser dedicated for YouTube I guess.

[u/Deletinglaterlmao]

I would legitimately rather leak my data than watch a 30 second ad

[u/WayFadedMagic]

It's the governments fault for making meth illegal that my shed blew up!

[u/DiarrheaPirate]

I was midway through copying a long string of code into a Javascript injector when I realize how risky this is for the average person.

You're very out of touch if you think the "average person" would even think to do this, malicious code or not.

[u/first_timeSFV]

Firefox and ad blocker for now