YouTube Cracks Down on Ad Blockers with New Pop-Up That Advertises YouTube Premium for an Ad-Free Experience

[Tsing]

How badly does Google want those YouTube Premium bucks? Really bad, it seems, as the company has begun displaying a new pop-up that warns users of uBlock Origin, AdBlock, and other popular ad blockers that such software is not permitted on the YouTube service. According to complainers on social media, this pop-up can actually be closed after a short wait, although one image post on r/youtube, titled "This is a disgrace," with nearly 15K comments, would suggest that such a trick may only work for a limited number of videos. YouTube is urging those who want an ad-free experience to subscribe to YouTube Premium, a premium version of the service that offers ad-free viewing and other perks for $13.99/month.

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[MadMummy76]

The pop up can only be closed three times, after that the video player will not load anymore. Instead it is replaced with this message:



But you can get around it by opening the video in a private window.

 

[Dan_D]

The pop up can only be closed three times, after that the video player will not load anymore. Instead it is replaced with this message:

View attachment 2744

But you can get around it by opening the video in a private window.

It's still letting me clear that warning. I've been doing it all night.

 

[Endgame]

Is the block based on javascript? I don't really use youtube much because the ads piss me off and it's not worth paying for, but this feels like something that should be fairly easy to work around with uMatrix.

 

[Brian_B]

Glad I don't watch Youtube. Disappointing to say the least though. And kind of dangerous, if you think about it, since the same company also makes the #1 web browser - they could do something stupid like completely neuter the add-on architecture, or put in a private work around for them that only works on their owned sites.

 

[MadMummy76]

Glad I don't watch Youtube. Disappointing to say the least though. And kind of dangerous, if you think about it, since the same company also makes the #1 web browser - they could do something stupid like completely neuter the add-on architecture, or put in a private work around for them that only works on their owned sites.

Something like that is already in the works, a kind of DRM for the web.

Google's plan is that, during a webpage transaction, the web server could require you to pass an "environment attestation" test before you get any data.

Meaning if you have an adblocker or other "undesirable" software installed the webpage might completely refuse to load.

Source

 

[Grimlakin]

Sounds like we need an add blocker blocker blocker.

 

[DrezKill]

A friend showed me this a few days ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/175uxxi

Which contained a link to this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/176ludf

This issue started occurring on my mom's laptop, so I tried the workaround (I've already been a user of Privacy Badger for years). It worked for a few days, but now it no longer works. I came up with a new workaround though:
1.) Turn uBlock Origin off.
2.) Load the YT video.
3.) Turn uBlock Origin back on (so ads don't actually show up during video playback).

This is the only thing working for my Mom's laptop right now. I haven't run into the issue yet on either my desktop PC or laptop, in either Win10 or Linux, in either Firefox or Ungoogled Chromium. Probably only a matter of time though.

 

[MadMummy76]

A friend showed me this a few days ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/175uxxi

Which contained a link to this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/176ludf

This issue started occurring on my mom's laptop, so I tried the workaround (I've already been a user of Privacy Badger for years). It worked for a few days, but now it no longer works. I came up with a new workaround though:
1.) Turn uBlock Origin off.
2.) Load the YT video.
3.) Turn uBlock Origin back on (so ads don't actually show up during video playback).

This is the only thing working for my Mom's laptop right now. I haven't run into the issue yet on either my desktop PC or laptop, in either Win10 or Linux, in either Firefox or Ungoogled Chromium. Probably only a matter of time though.

Brave browser has no issues so far.

I also described a much easier workaround that works in Firefox above:
Open the videos in a private window. Just make sure your adlocker is enabled to run in private windows.

 

[Uvilla]

I just don't bother with youtube that much anymore. Its juat easier that way.

 

[DrezKill]

Brave browser has no issues so far.

Yeah I also have no issues with Brave and Edge. Didn't test Epic Privacy Browser yet. Of course all 3 are based on Chromium. But so is Chrome, and I got friends using Chrome who have run into this YT issue.

I also described a much easier workaround that works in Firefox above:
Open the videos in a private window. Just make sure your adlocker is enabled to run in private windows.

Oh whoops, I guess I missed it, even though it's pretty obvious and hard to miss. I probably read it, forgot about it, came back to this thread later and didn't re-read the earlier posts.