Google is cracking down on YouTube ad-blockers again
YouTube says ad-blockers stop creators from being rewarded for viewership
👮 Google is cracking down on third-party ad-blockers
😖 Viewers who use third-party apps may experience buffering issues or errors
💰 Google says it wants to protect creators who would miss out on ad revenue
🔴 People should sign up for YouTube Premium if they want to remove ads
Google is once again trying to stop people from using ad-blockers on YouTube, in a bid to drive more users to its Premium subscription service.
YouTube announced on its support page that it’s “strengthening our enforcement on third-party apps that violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, specifically ad-blocking apps.”
It also said, “Viewers who are using these third-party apps may experience buffering issues or see the error ‘The following content is not available on this app’ when trying to watch a video.”
Google’s reasoning for targeting ad-blockers is that turning off ads “prevents the creator [of a video] from being rewarded for viewership, and Ads on YouTube help support creators.”
Unsurprisingly, it points readers to YouTube Premium, Google’s subscription service that removes ads, gives subscribers access to YouTube Music, and includes various other perks like offline downloads.
While YouTube’s subscription is admittedly a fantastic service for those who use the video platform regularly – I canceled Spotify for YouTube Premium as it made sense for me – the recent price hikes have made it harder to recommend.
Google increased the price of a YouTube Premium family plan by 25% in 2022, and a single membership increased by $2 a month in 2023. I still think it’s worth it for what you get, but it’s easy to see why people turn to free ad blockers, especially as videos obtain an obscene amount of ads these days.
Google was accused of slowing down YouTube earlier this year, however, it turns out it was an issue caused by a bug with AdBlock and AdBlock Plus and not Google itself.