YouTube tightens thumbscrew to crack down on ad-blockers
Google has been testing several ways to combat users who use ad-blockers on its YouTube video streaming site. One of the first tests informed users that ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube. The prompt, which blocks access to the site, offers three options to users to react to it. The two prominent ones are to configure the content blocker to allow ads on YouTube or to subscribe to the paid service YouTube Premium.
A small close icon in the top right corner is the third and less focused option. Users have the option to click on the x-icon to close the prompt and continue using YouTube.
Now, it appears, Google is making this option less attractive to users on the site. Instead of displaying the close icon directly, YouTube is now showing a timer in its place. In other words: users who get the prompt have to wait between 30 to 60 seconds before they can close the entire prompt and start using the site.
A screenshot of the new prompt was posted to Reddit recently.
The notification appears to hit users of different content blockers, including uBlock Origin. It seems that the majority of users are not getting these prompts, likely because Google is still testing reception and the rate of return.
Interestingly, YouTube has now also added the timer to the second prompt that Google is trialing on the site currently. Users may also get the drastic "video player will be blocked after 3 videos" prompt, which will lock down the video player entirely after three videos have been watched.
The initial version of that prompt featured a close button that users could activate immediately. The updated version features the same timer, so that users have to wait 30 to 60 seconds before they can close the prompt and start watching the three videos that YouTube allows them to watch before the lockdown.
The third and final prompt blocks access to YouTube entirely, stating that ad blockers violate the site's terms of service.
The recently posted instructions to bypass YouTube's anti-ad-blocker prompts may not work anymore properly at the time, as Google is making modifications all the time to them.
Users hit with the prompts have a few options:
- Try watching videos in Incognito Mode with content blocking enabled.
- Try another web browser, either one with a built-in ad-blocker, e.g., Brave Browser or Vivaldi, or one with a content blocker installed.
- Try dedicated programs or apps, such as VLC Media Player, SMPlayer or FreeTube, YouTube ReVanced or YouTube apps for Android.
- Try third-party apps like NewPipe or PeerTube.
Some content blockers will also be updated regularly to address the support bypassing the latest prompts on YouTube.
Google announced a price increase for YouTube Premium recently that increases the monthly price from $11.99 to $13.99 per month.
Now You: do you use YouTube? (via Neowin)
Using Brave I see no ads, but project to TV and they slip in two at a time. They are inserted anywhere with no consideration of a break in continuity. The bright side is they are relatively short and run about every 15 minutes, which is better than FTA. However, nowhere near as good as no advertising.
@Anonymous
For TV there is SmartTubeNext:
https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext
It requires an Android TV / Google TV or Fire TV device. Zero ads with that one.
I don’t think gHacks readers/YT users understand why companies do what they do. [Think NFLX and the recent crackdown on password sharing.]
GOOG/GOOGL promote business practices to improve value for shareholders; whatever choices are made, are made to maximize profits–even at the expense of losing a few disgruntled users.
The masses care little about YT blocking ad-blockers, and shareholders, as well as those who rely on advertising revenue by providing quality content, praise such moves by Google.
I am genuinely happy and relieved to read that current and future efforts to bypass Google’s attempt to eliminate ad blocking (by a miniscule number of non-shareholder/non-content producing aliens/malcontents) continues by making the necessary “modifications all the time.”
“non-shareholder/non-content producing aliens/malcontents” – love it! We need people like you to persuade the oil companies to drill for more oil. I love making money without any conscience – it’s great!
Hey Google, for the record you had this coming for a long time. I’m already in the process of moving to podcasts which are often released in conjunction with YouTube. I specifically do not like your low morals, the exploitation and dominance of the internet. I have already set up DNS blocklists in pfSense, the hosts file in my computers and phones. (Yes Android has a hosts file – mine is currently 30Mb).
Google, Meta, and Amazon have ruined the internet – there is very little choice these days. Your DRM approach to the internet will backfire spectacularly – people are getting wise to your “offer something up for free in exchange for the data” approach. Quite frankly, f-off!
As far as I’m concerned, there is no difference between adverts, trackers, spyware, malware, ransomware, crypto-miners, spammers, analytics, porn / adult, dodgy software, security services (NSO etc.), cybercrime etc. Every single one of these invades your privacy. You are all sh1t3 and have ruined the internet, and you will be banned!
The rich and mighty have always used psychological science and force to influence and steer the masses. Trying not to confront those powers is a simple way to get out of the way i.e. simply not using what is offered. Some how i conclude it will be the last final step back into a new independence… to not use technology from them. Many have already done this by banning TV sets from our homes.
> banning TV sets from our homes.
Our house is the same.
At first, my family opposed it. but In less than a month, no one watches TV anymore.
As a result, family conversations and get-togethers have increased, enjoying meals, and fulfilling daily life.
And we have become more and more interested in the events around us (changes in time and seasons, existence of living things).
Now again, We recognize that once-in-a-lifetime opportunities are precious.
I keep thinking that no living being, not just humans, can live a healthy life alone (loneliness), they need a community. However, the virtual community of cyber space is the opposite of the real community, and is impersonal and empty.
In ancient times, the “Great Wall” was built by human power (total length is 7930 km).
Rome and Nara were connected by the “Silk Road”, and people and goods came and went all the way.
Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet circumnavigated the world with a sailing ship, demonstrating that the earth was round.
Even if it’s too magnificent and impractial, it’s the result of faith and passion.
Nothing progresses (doesn’t start) unless you take a step forward.
What is done cannot be undone, repentance comes too late.
Do not give up, Many a little makes a mickle.
> banning TV sets from our homes.
What we do (touch, hear, see) is because there is, and when there is nothing, we will eventually forget it. And we realize the importance of (trivial) things that we had lost sight of because of their “existence”.
Our family realized that what is important is not “for example, TV”, but the joy of sharing once-in-a-lifetime time and days with family and friends.
Yesterday, a nest of paper wasps (more than 100) in the garden was attacked and all preyed by several giant hornets. Now, Oriental turtle dove is nesting outside the window right. A lot of cicadas are singing. The approaching typhoon shakes the trees and the weather is unpredictable. “Interesting and realistic dramas” are constantly unfolding around us. Change your point of view or sensibility.
Our family has moved to a “digital detox” lifestyle and doesn’t use social media or YouTube at all, but we can’t overlook this topic.
Google specializes in the “advertising business”, and now that the web has spread all over the world, it is probably because “Google wants to completely control the world’s advertising business”.
“I don’t mind watching ads” or “choosing a premium membership” are nothing more than “the brain of a two-year-old” that puts the cart before the horse.
“Taking full control of the advertising business” means destroying the real world (destroying local means) and giving Google control over the virtual world.
If that happens, in this world will surely be ruled by Google, and humanity will be nothing more than Google’s servants (existence at will). Because “analog will die someday, digital will survive, because digital will not deteriorate”. I am horrified shudder.
It is, the near future is predicted by the cinema “Total Recall” and “A.I. Artificial Intelligence”.
Don’t sit on the sidelines of Google’s domineering.
We must show the courage to boycott all Google services, will give a crushing blow to the platformers that dominate the market, and revive a market that guarantees healthy diversity.
We, the users, are being tested.
Sooner or later we should really abandon Youtube and all Google related services and software. I know there is going to be a big blow out for me saying this because for some reason people have some sort of weird relationship or attachment to Google like it is their first born son but its time to let them go.
They are continuously trying to undermine the core values of the internet that we know and love. They want to stack the power in their favour. They have already achieved most of that otherwise they would not be pulling these kinds of stunts just like the things they are doing through their browser.
If you’re getting ads on your TV then try using an ad blocking system at the router level if you are getting ads on TV services and as Ironheart has said get something like a firestick or Nvidia shield if you aren’t able to set up a htpc. You’d have to jailbreak those devices thought and spend a fair bit of time getting it right so you can break it from the shackles of their own trash. Then you can install or sideload apps that will bypass ads on youtube as well as many other great things through it.
It is definitely a nice idea to set up something outside of subscription services. I would like to set up a NAS and run something like Jellyfin and do away with a lot of the other garbage. I do not subscribe to Netflix or any of those services so I am already halfway there hahaha.
@Mystique
I would absolutely not recommend what you call “jailbreaking” an Nvidia Shield or similar. For most use cases, anyway. Reason being, if you are unlocking the bootloader to e.g. install LineageOS, you are losing Widevine L1 support. It’s designed like that on purpose. Losing Widevine L1 means no HD or 4K resolutions on services like Disney+ anymore. Netflix outright refuses to work without Google Play Services too (no idea whether or not there are shims). The Nvidia Shield would still work for stuff like Plex that involve your personal DRM-free files, and I guess it also still works for unofficial clients like SmartTubeNext, but most major streaming services are out then – this reduces the usefulness of such a modified device immensely to most people. HTPC with Linux is not problem-free either, most streaming services never liked Linux.
Web Environment Integrity will mess stuff up big time. I think it is designed to verify that you are human, i.e. it is directly against web scraping employed by AI. The advent of AI really changed the game; most websites with a lot of information and traffic think they are holding the keys to the (data) kingdom. Now, I guess a side effect of this will be killing stuff like adblockers if they are detected within your setup (which is trivial, no matter which browser you use – a website can detect whether or not you load all of its resources). WEI will arrive on YouTube very soon, I imagine. At this point, what can you do? Network-based solutions like Pi-Hole don’t work and never have worked on YouTube, because the ads are served from the same domain the video itself gets served from. By blocking the domain, you are also blocking the video. Without Pi-Hole and without adblocking extensions, the only thing you can do is to deploy a VPN on the router level and set it to a country where Google currently does not push ads to on YouTube. That’s the case for various Eastern European countries as well as Balkan countries. Unless they also decide to fight VPN via blacklisting, this should survive WEI. I would not deploy the VPN on a PC because no doubt WEI is going to leverage the TPM module many modern PCs have (and which, coincidentally, is an official system requirement for Windows 11). The TPM might be able to detect certain alterations that were made on the PC directly.
Looks like the future is pretty shitty indeed, no doubt Brave will not be getting attestation under a WEI scheme. It is directly opposed to ads, Google would love to kill it. Chrome will, Edge will, Safari will. Firefox could, potentially (but your adblocking extension, if detected, will still f*ck you up). I will probably be forced to adopt one of these clients if WEI is pushed through and I doubt that it will happen on a Linux machine either.
If the web goes into this direction, where an invasive client like Chrome (or similar) is forced on me, what I will do is to continue to browse sections of the web that still respect user freedom and user choice. For necessary websites that employ WEI, like government-mandated ones, I will get the shittiest and cheapest Chromebook imaginable (not because I am cheap, purely out of spite!) and use this only when absolutely necessary.
I have degoogled my life pretty much, I fully moved away from Google Search and have never used GMail. Chromium I could move away from, but I currently see no reason to use Firefox over any Chromium fork not named Chrome / Edge / Opera, because I 100% expect them to cave to whatever Google wants anyway. Android I actively don’t want to move away from, at least AOSP is still open source and the only alternative is the shitty, locked down, and equally invasive iOS. Linux phones are not ready for primetime.
This got a bit longer than expected, just my perspective on what I am going to do.
Brave directly opposed to ads. lol. They are an ad company that happens to make a Chrome skin. They just replace other people’s ads with their own.
@Anonymous
Listen up genius, Brave is blocking ads by default. Brave Rewards is opt-in. The ads Brave displays are system notifications and are obviously not the ads Google makes its money with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WEi
Indeed, they must be stopped.
@Iron Heart,
> For necessary websites that employ WEI, like government-mandated ones, I will get the shittiest and cheapest Chromebook imaginable (not because I am cheap, purely out of spite!) and use this only when absolutely necessary.
Useful as a case study.
It is most regrettable that Japan has made it mandatory for “all citizens from newborn to until life ends” to use a “My Number Portal Card” that links all personal information.
From the very beginning (Old traditional conservatives have long wanted to strictly manage and control those who have Japanese nationality and those who do not: the values ??of racism and superiority studies), there was fierce opposition from the public, and the bill frustrated many times.
The bill was forcefully passed by the current ruling party, but 40% of the people still refuse to get an account. Our family too. The greatest basis for this is the current Japanese Constitution, which proclaims that “all citizens are equally guaranteed their rights”. The current ruling party is working hard to abolish the “Constitution of Japan”, which is inconvenient for the government, and enact a new constitution.
Any space (whether real or virtual) in which humans intervene is everywhere abnormal condition.
Neither the earth nor the universe exists for “humanity”. After all, the life of living things is fleeting. For posterity, I just wish humanity to restrain oneself for the earth and the universe.
Sentence correction:
Before correction,
From the very beginning (Old traditional conservatives have long wanted to strictly manage and control those who have Japanese nationality and those who do not: the values ??of racism and superiority studies), there was fierce opposition from the public, and the bill frustrated many times.
After correction,
From the very beginning (Old traditional conservatives have long wanted to strictly a rigid distinction manage and control those who have Japanese nationality and those who do not. such the bedrock layer of the ruling party’s supporters had a stubborn “value of racism and superiority research” and strongly demanded that it be a national policy.), there was fierce opposition from the public, and the bill frustrated many times.
Sentence correction:
“value of racism and superiority research” > “value of racism and eugenics”
Never was obsessed with blocking ads, sure I am not a fan of ads but I either pay to not have them or choose to just accept them as a means for a free experience. I grew up accepting that ads pay for content and do not mind the trade off.
>I grew up accepting that ads pay for content…
It’s not ad pay for content. That’s a lie that Google and other advertising companies are pushing.
It’s those who are shown the ads who pay for everything out of their own pockets when they buy the products and services that were advertised. Because the price of ad is included in the price of the product/service.
If you don’t buy what youtube advertises to you, you haven’t really paid for anything. You just made google a little bit richer.
The great problem with this mentality is that corporate greed exceeds logic and sense. The greed increases exponentially every year. I have worked in an environment where the greed was self consuming and they would rather close down outlets and try to extract more money from society than run a business that makes a reasonable profit. Any profits went straight to the top and not to the staff or in creating a good working environment. It got to the point where they stopped investing into the business almost completely and it just become a racket.
Youtube is much the same if WEI passes wait and see what will happen to the platform.
Year upon year things get worse as the greed becomes greater and greater. Its becoming far more evident in the tech world these days.
> that corporate greed exceeds logic and sense. The greed increases exponentially every year. I have worked in an environment where the greed was self consuming and they would rather close down outlets and try to extract more money from society than run a business that makes a reasonable profit. Any profits went straight to the top and not to the staff or in creating a good working environment. It got to the point where they stopped investing into the business almost completely and it just become a racket.
That insight is spot on.
It is the providence of all times, east and west, and exceptions are extremely rare.
Therefore, in order to ensure soundness, “All living things in this world are fated to die, and above all, increase diversity”.
Digital without deterioration and “monopoly” go against that providence.
Never seen this, or any other ad-blocker warning, on YouTube.
This may or may not be because I’m using the “Enhancer for YouTube” Firefox add-on, which has historically been effective at reducing YT ads and annoyances. I’m also using uBlock Origin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/enhancer-for-youtube/
I gave up on youtube after they purged all the historically correct politically incorrect music.
https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/13nss60/youtube_ads_back_on_desktop/jl5wxyu/
Maybe when they remove YT Music from YT Premium I’ll pay for IT. It’s one thing to bundle, but a bundle being the only choice is stupid and I’ll never support.
My bigger fear right now is YouTube revoking API access to apps like NewPipe, because I don’t use the original app and website anyway.
I’m able to survive without it. Nothing necessary for life is on YouTube. I realized how many websites I had put off visiting in 2023. It would be wise to start weaning off of these tech giant services as soon as possible. The internet is on course to be destroyed by Google’s ridiculous Web Integrity API.
Well, this only happens when people watch videos logged in, because it is the only way they can ‘ban’ or control people’s decisions.
Anti-Adblocking has been done in many ways but the result is usually the same, since adblockers either block Network Requests or Hide HTML nodes by injecting CSS property ‘display: none’.
So what the websites do is to see if something is either blocking or hiding stuff, and then tell you to to turn the adblocker off.
That’s the only way they do it, there is no magical way for a browser to know if you have or not an adblocker working on the website.
So it must be pretty easy to avoid this as shown by many rules by Easylist/uBlock/Brave teams.
Now, why would people watch Youtube videos logged in? it is dumb.
Then they come and complain how they got the message, instead of just using Private/Incognito mode for that or another profile in Chromium or containers if Firefox?
What is the point of watching the same video logged and unlogged? especially when Google is harvesting the information anyway.
People should start doing smart things, and only use accounts when necessary.
This is why I have went to rumble
I rarely watch anything on it and in fact actively try to avoid doing so. I’ve never seen an add on it on my PC.
The kids watch it on the big Samsung TV (which I apparently rent instead of own) in the living room at times via the app in the TV and they get tons of ads but that will end as soon as I put in a GPU capable of outputting 4k hdr in the PC sitting below it ;)
@Tachy
You can also connect an Android TV / Google TV or Fire TV device and use this:
https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext
It must be regional pricing like Cloudflare WARP+. YouTube Individual Premium is only $3.80p/m by me. A little more than the cost of 2x Big Mac burgers. $12 would get me 6x Big Mac burgers and a large fries. Big Mac burgers are $1.79 each here.
Do you have a banana for comparison?
Or maybe you know how much it is in the NORMAL (metric) system?
How much is that in football fields?
Or Olympic-sized swimming pools?
I wish Google did an IBM and made its money off the enterprise sector. Imagine having all these bright minds and still relying a lot on advertising and telling people to buy random stuff in THIS economy.
Using an adblocker is a mental health boost honestly. Won’t stop using it on YouTube ever.