YouTube has tightened its crackdown on ad blocking, a move that could impact millions of users around the world.
Users reported “strange behavior” on Monday when using YouTube with ad blockers enabled, complaining that this caused videos to skip to the end or automatically mute during playback.
“When I use the ad blocker on YouTube, there is no sound,” Reddit user Freemanhl2 wrote on the YouTube subreddit. “You can adjust the volume slider for a second and then it mutes again.”
Another user wrote: “When I try to play a video while Adblock is running, the first second of the video plays with sound and then it goes silent. The video itself plays normally but there is no sound. I just spent a good 10 minutes thinking there is something wrong with my headset or my PC.”
Ad blocking tools such as browser extensions are becoming increasingly popular for filtering out and removing intrusive online advertisements.
A recent survey by research firm Censuswide found that more than half of people in the U.S. use ad blockers, with younger people far more likely to use the technology. Separate figures released by Statista suggest that the total number of adblock users worldwide is nearly 1 billion.
YouTube announced last month that it would crack down on third-party apps that offer ad-blocking capabilities, saying in a community notice that they violate YouTube’s terms of service.
“We want to stress that our terms do not allow third-party apps to disable ads, as doing so prevents the creator from being rewarded for their viewership. Ads on YouTube support creators and enable billions of people around the world to use the streaming services,” the announcement said.
“Viewers using these third-party apps may experience buffering issues or an error message saying ‘The following content is not available in this app’ when attempting to watch a video.”
The company added that by signing up for YouTube Premium, users could have a completely ad-free experience.
Some users also noted that there is still a legitimate way to bypass some ads on YouTube without using ad blockers or paying for YouTube Premium. By skipping to the end of a video and pressing the play button, it seems like the video isn’t interrupted by ads.
A YouTube spokesperson said The Independent: “Ad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, and we’ve been asking users for some time to support their favorite creators and allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience.
“An independent push to improve YouTube’s performance and reliability may result in a suboptimal viewing experience for users of ad blockers.”
