YouTube has been making a good effort to prevent users from using ad blockers when watching videos on the platform. After all, it goes against the terms of service, and the creators on the platform mostly rely on the ad revenue. So, when a recent issue that made videos unwatchable popped up, people thought it to be another push toward the anti-ad blocker campaign.
But YouTube says otherwise. The streaming giant says, “An unrelated push to improve YouTube’s performance and reliability may be resulting in suboptimal viewing experiences for ad blocker users.” This means that it’s not an intended anti-ad blocker measure from the company.
More About the YouTube Issue with Ad Blockers
So, if you’re unaware of the issue, YouTube videos are skipping to the end if you’re using an ad blocker. When users faced the problem, they accused the streaming company of taking another step to prevent users from using ad-blocking software.
However, YouTube is pushing back on these claims. The company says the problem isn’t a sneaky anti-adblocker tactic. Instead, it’s an unintended consequence of ongoing efforts to improve YouTube’s performance and reliability. In other words, they’re trying to make YouTube better for everyone, but these changes might be interfering with some ad blockers.
Gizchina News of the week
Of course, this explanation is also met with some skepticism. After all, YouTube’s recent crackdown on ad blockers has been quite frequent. Earlier this year, similar issues arose for users with Adblock or Adblock Plus. But it was due to a faulty extension update, not YouTube itself.
Additionally, the platform’s terms of service do discourage ad blockers. Its support page even offers suggestions for ad blockers to coexist with some forms of advertising. One user even reported experiencing disruptions without an ad blocker installed, further muddying the waters.
Whether it’s an unintended attack or not, YouTube needs to ensure that it doesn’t happen to users without ad blockers. And as always, we recommend not using ad blockers while enjoying free content, because it’s how you support it to stay free. Yes, the ads can be annoying. But for that, you can get an ad-free experience with the Premium tier.
