According to a report from 9 To 5 Google and a number of users on Reddit and other platforms, YouTube is once again trying to discourage the use of ad-blocking extensions — using any means possible.
We've already seen YouTube forcibly extending initial page loading time for ad-block users, and even eventually blocking video playback outright if you're detected playing three videos while using an ad-blocker. This behavior has resulted in criminal complaints being filed — and it isn't even the only major issue YouTube has faced recently.
In addition to its anti-ad-blocking activity, Google has also been caught intentionally slowing down YouTube performance for Firefox users (even without ad-blockers), as well as users running Arm-based systems.
If YouTube has been fighting ad-blocking users and non-Chrome users (to some extent) for several months, what's changed?
Well, nothing — and that's why people are still posting about it.
A video demonstrating the problem was uploaded to Reddit four days ago has over 8,500 upvotes and over 1,000 comments. But Reddit user NightMean's most recent comments actually show that the issue was most likely caused by their own error of trying to run multiple ad-blocking extensions at once — and they note that the issue disappears after they switch to using just uBlock Origin.
Other Reddit users report having the same issue, though most don't confirm which ad-blocker(s) they're using. It seems like several people are reporting using two or more ad-blockers within the same browser in hopes of having extra protection, however, and this is likely to be triggering this "countermeasure," since you aren't supposed to run more than one ad-blocker at a time. Many of these users also report that the issue vanishes when they cut down to just using uBlock Origin.
In other words, this most recent YouTube-ad-blocking scandal might actually just be user error and not YouTube stepping up its anti-ad-blocking game.
YouTube made an official statement to Android Central yesterday, denying responsibility for this incident:
"Recent reports of users experiencing loading delays on YouTube are unrelated to our ad blocker detection efforts. Our help center offers troubleshooting tips for users experiencing issues."
More importantly, the developers of ad-blocking extensions AdBlock an AdBlock Plus have fixed a bug that affected YouTube performance. You'll need to update to AdBlock 5.17.1 and AdBlock Plus 3.22.1 for the fix. The free, open-source uBlock Origin never had this specific issue, according to our testing.
Our best advice: Don't run multiple ad-blocking extensions, because doing so seems to trip up detection and activate YouTube's anti-ad-blocking countermeasures.
