YouTube to begin Crackdown on Ad Blockers
YouTube is taking its battle with ad blockers mobile. YouTube reports in an update on Monday that users who are watching videos using an ad-blocking third-party app may experience buffering problems or receive an error notice stating, “The following content is not available on this app.”
YouTube “launched a global effort” last year to persuade people to subscribe to YouTube Premium or accept advertisements while watching videos. Additionally, it started to disable movies for users who had their ad-blocking software installed.
What Actions Is YouTube Taking?
However, YouTube now states that it prohibits “third-party apps from turning off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership” due to policy changes. This seems to be directed at mobile ad blockers such as AdGuard, which allows you to launch YouTube within the programme that blocks ads, allowing you to watch videos without any interruptions.
YouTube states, “We only permit third-party apps to use our API when they abide by our API Services Terms of Service.” “We will take appropriate action to protect our platform, creators, and viewers when we find an app that violates these terms.”
Personal Thoughts
While this may sound like bad news for consumers who don’t use YouTube Premium, the real problem lies with the Ad blocking companies, whose large percentage of their customer base relies on being able to get YouTube’s premium features, especially the ad-free feature, free of charge.
However, YouTube is not completely faultless in this case, the amount of ads found on the platform has begun to reach exponential levels, and they are dangerously close to pushing away most of their customers if serious changes aren’t going to be made on the platform.
While most Ad blocker companies are relatively small, a few of them may have a legal case against YouTube for infringing upon their organisational method of operation. Sadly I am not a lawyer and their legal prerogative would lie with the experts in the field.
YouTube again advises subscribing to the ad-free YouTube Premium to avoid this. It’s probably not good news for every user who watches YouTube with an ad blocker, but it appears that YouTube is not going to give up on its fight against ad blockers any time soon.
