YouTube hasn't stepped up its anti-ad-blocking activity, you're using too many ad-blockers

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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.

Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

With contributions from
  • punkncat
    Where the above may well be the case, it is important to point out that even if you subscribe to the ad free experience, you MUST disable your ad blocker for the page to perform correctly.
    Reply
  • ivan_vy
    I said it and I'll say it again: Firefox+uBlock.
    Reply
  • Makaveli
    meh i'm running ADGuardHome at the router level.
    Reply
  • nitrium
    Brave Browser has tracker and adblocking built right into it, no extensions needed. It's Chromium based, so regular Google Chrome extensions also work.
    Reply
  • RandomWan
    nitrium said:
    Brave Browser has tracker and adblocking built right into it, no extensions needed. It's Chromium based, so regular Google Chrome extensions also work.
    I've been running the same and with some updated Block element code added at the start of this, I haven't seen any ads or warnings.
    Reply
  • sivaseemakurthi
    I use firefox + adblock plus. Youtube videos don't play for me for a month now. Interestingly, I can play the video in incognito mode. Seems like they track per user account.
    Reply
  • CelicaGT
    sivaseemakurthi said:
    I use firefox + adblock plus. Youtube videos don't play for me for a month now. Interestingly, I can play the video in incognito mode. Seems like they track per user account.
    Ditch Adblock and use uBlock, it's better at what it does anyways.
    Reply
  • Jagar123
    "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."
    You know what, guys? I believe them. /s
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    Not sure why you'd need multiple adblockers anyway. uBlock Origin + NoScript is all you need.
    Reply
  • oqix
    Youtube (google, Alphabet) can do everithing outside EU. If US citizens and other countiries are OK whith that then OKAY, but peoples in EU are not! We do have laws that regulate this things. So alphabebet You should start obey thoes laws and you should STOP seding us your ADS.
    Reply