YouTube just got more serious about its ad blocker crackdown

2025-04-27 01:56:16admin

YouTube is ramping up its enforcement against ad-blockers, by blocking certain third-party apps. On a totally unrelated note, did you know YouTube offers a paid ad-free subscription?

SEE ALSO: YouTube Premium might let you automatically jump to the most interesting part of a video

On Monday, YouTube posted an update saying people who use third-party ad-blockers "may experience buffering" or get a playback error. YouTube's terms of service bans ad-blockers and now the video streaming giant is getting serious about enforcing this. [An ad-blocker] prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership, and Ads on YouTube help support creators and let billions of people around the world use the streaming service," said the announcement.

Last October, YouTube announced a "global effort" to crack down on ad-blocking services on the platform, per The Verge. Previously, this was rolled out to smaller groups and targeted specific ad-blockers. Users could still find a workaround by downloading a third-party app via YouTube's API. But now YouTube is closing off all ways of ad-blocking by prohibiting third-party apps that do this as well.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

This is undoubtedly a good thing for creators who make money from YouTube content, but a bummer for casual viewers, although we kinda get it. YouTube is in the delicate position of having to keep creators happy in addition to its advertisers and users. But this time, users are losing out. On the surface it's a classic case of enshittification, or locking in users by offering a free service then gradually making it worse to force users to sign up for the premium version, but on the other hand, you could just sit through the ads.