How badly does Google want those YouTube Premium bucks? Really bad, it seems, as the company has begun displaying a new pop-up that warns users of uBlock Origin, AdBlock, and other popular ad blockers that such software is not permitted on the YouTube service. According to complainers on social media, this pop-up can actually be closed after a short wait, although one image post on r/youtube, titled “This is a disgrace,” with nearly 15K comments, would suggest that such a trick may only work for a limited number of videos. YouTube is urging those who want an ad-free experience to subscribe to YouTube Premium, a premium version of the service that offers ad-free viewing and other perks for $13.99/month.
“Ad blocker detection is not new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to disable ad blockers,” Google spokesperson Oluwa Falodun told The Verge earlier this year in a report that claimed users would “receive multiple notifications urging them to cease using the tools — or, alternatively, subscribe to YouTube Premium — before any of their viewing is disrupted.”
“We take disabling playback very seriously, and will only disable playback if viewers ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube,” Falodun added. “In cases when viewers feel they have been falsely flagged as using an ad blocker, they can share this feedback by clicking on the link in the prompt.”
So, who’s going to create the YouTube ad blocker that can unblock the YouTube blocker that blocks the unblocker? pic.twitter.com/U6V5z7Kh2N
— RidhoM (@falfoxdev) October 10, 2023