Back in June, YouTube announced that it was running a “small experiment” globally where it urged a tiny subset of people using ad blockers to disable them if they want to view content on the platform.
This is no longer a “small experiment”. YouTube now says it’s launching a global effort to crack down on ad blockers and encourage users to either allow ads or pay for YouTube Premium (where there are no ads).
This comes straight from YouTube communications manager Christopher Lawton. When you run into YouTube’s ad blocker block, you’ll see a message like the one in the screenshot above. The most important bit is this: “video playback is blocked unless YouTube is allowlisted or the ad blocker is disabled”.
As expected, you get two choices: allowing ads or trying YouTube Premium, and that’s it. The expansion of YouTube’s blocking of ad blockers has gradually happened over the past several weeks.
According to Lawton, using ad blockers violates the platform’s terms of service. “Ads support a diverse ecosystem of creators globally and allow billions to access their favorite content on YouTube”, he said.
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