YouTube shuts down ad-blocker loophole, tightens restrictions

General News
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Firefox users are reporting that YouTube is now blocking them from watching videos.

YouTube is once again cracking down on those who use ad blockers. The Google-owned company has been implementing measures to combat third-party extensions for years, and it has just closed a loophole that allowed the likes of Firefox to circumvent these protections.

YouTube’s fight against ad blockers began with an experiment in May 2023, when it started warning users that ad blockers were not allowed on the site. Since then, the campaign has evolved to the point where YouTube prevents ad-blocker users from playing videos.

Despite YouTube’s efforts, there have been loopholes allowing apps such as Firefox and various extensions to continue bypassing ads without YouTube detecting the practice.

Although Reddit users have reported that this issue was patched by uBlock Origin developers, you may have different experiences. Has anyone also faced issues with YouTube lately?

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I use GrayJay to watch YouTube and that all seems to be fine. Haven’t had any issues in a while.

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Still works fine for me. Although I have seen once the “Adblocker aren’t allowed on Youtube warning” recently, since I clear cookies on browser shutdown, it seems to circumvent it.

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There has been a significant uptick in the number of reports of youtube breakages or blocks in the Brave Browser, Firefox, and uBO communities lately, so I believe the problem is real. But personally, I haven’t had any recent trouble with Youtube on:

  1. Firefox (Arkenfox) | on Linux
  2. Freetube | on Linux
  3. Brave Browser (PG config) | on Linux and on iOS
  4. Unwatched | on iOS

I’m too lazy to go find my android phone, so I haven’t checked newpipe or it’s non-foss alternative or browsers on Android.

The only case I experienced even a small hiccup was Safari on iOS w/ Adguard today (there is no block or breakage, but a page refresh was required before videos will play). Other than that, it’s been smooth sailing recently.

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BravePipe/NewPipe works fine

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YouTube has been slowly toying with quite a handful of fun features:

  • requiring an account to watch videos depending on browser fingerprint or IP
  • preventing playback if an adblocker is detected
  • serving content with DRM
  • restricting 4K videos to those with YouTube Premium
  • allowing video playback but preventing subtitle or transcript access depending on IP

If any of you have creators/content you enjoy or want to see preserved I’d suggest you download it while you still can.

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Any source? I have never seen a DRM on a regular YouTube video before.

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I use odysee and Free Tube

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Is Gray Jay on desktop?

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Looks like it does, but Freetube is what you would mainly use on desktop for YT.

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Thanks! Yeah, I’m familiar with Freetube. I love it. Only issue is that using it with VPN can sometimes create problems.

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Well, we’re going to get to a point where YouTube will become just unusable…

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At the end of the day, if they still want to be massively embedded in websites and apps, they can’t force DRM or be too nitpinicky. They will try stopping adblocker while keeping convenience, so the impact is so far limited.

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@anonymous351

they also tend to throttle a video if you used an adblocker

that was happened to me when im using mullvad browser. fortunately, its an easy fix by resetting your profile.

it would be a shock to ppl if youtube escalate their efforts throttle everyone else experiences

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I use Freetube on Fedora and the most frequent thing I’ve noticed is IP blocking - I switch VPN servers and the video plays.

I see the same behaviour on Android with PipePipe.

I don’t have a google account and probably never will. Google is putting too much effort into making the viewing experience worse and worse.

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