YouTube Is Cracking Down on Third-Party Ad-Blocking Apps
YouTube has no problem with these ad blockers. Late last year, the company began using these anti-advertising tools on desktop computers , with users with ad blocking enabled seeing a pop-up warning them to disable the tool while watching YouTube. If they didn’t comply, the site would block the video from loading, and the ad blocker would effectively become a YouTube blocker.
While this implementation ended some ad blocking on YouTube, the policy’s implementation had little impact on mobile users: third-party YouTube apps with built-in ad blockers were still able to watch videos without issue. At least until now.
On Monday, YouTube published a new help page outlining new guidelines for third-party apps. Going forward, the company says that users streaming through one of these apps may experience buffering or encounter a “The following content is not available in this app” error when trying to play a video. Additionally, YouTube says it will only allow third-party apps to use its API if they comply with the API Services Terms of Service , and when it finds that an app violates these rules, it will “take appropriate measures to protect [its] platform” . , creators and viewers.”
Look, I understand YouTube’s point. The company has been advertising in its videos since 2007 . (Hey, even a trillion-dollar company needs to make a living.) Advertising makes up a large part of YouTube’s revenue stream, so of course the company will be especially wary of those who try to circumvent it. But this is the Internet, after all. Many of us prefer to use ad blockers because some websites abuse the system with intrusive ads and trackers.
There’s probably little that third-party apps can do to combat this if they want to use the YouTube API to offer a full YouTube client. If so, they will have to remove ad blocking from the list of features. However, AdGuard states that it is tax exempt here because the company does not use the YouTube API . So, for now, you should be able to use the AdGuard app on iOS or Android to bypass this change.
For most of the Internet’s history, its users have found ways to get around paying for things in one way or another. However, it appears that the goal of the 2020s Internet is to get users to pay or have input into how these companies get paid. YouTube tries to stop you from watching with ad blockers, just like Netflix and Disney stop you from watching using someone else’s account.
Official YouTube workaround for those who want to watch videos without ads? Subscribe to Premium . Somehow, I don’t see this argument convincing many former ad blockers.