In recent months, YouTube has intensified its fight against ad blockers, implementing new measures that affect users who use these programs. Now, as reported by 9to5Google, many users have noticed that their videos on the platform abruptly skip to the end when they have an ad blocker enabled. This problem is resolved by disabling the ad blocker, suggesting that it could be part of a new tactic by the platform to combat its use.
In Reddit, several users have shared their experiences with this issue. Some report that videos play without audio, while others mention that videos get stuck on loading. A user on the platform, SDHD4K, described this problem on YouTube, and user freemanhl2 added: “You can adjust the volume slider for a second and then it mutes again”. Another user, Vampirehedgehog, expressed: “Oh my god, this is happening to me too! It’s so annoying, I don’t know what’s going on. Well, at least I’m not the only one having this problem”.
The reason behind this possible measure, as well as previously implemented ones, would be evident: almost all of Google’s revenue comes from advertising, and the company would want to ensure that the only way to avoid ads is through a Premium subscription.
However, users have found alternative solutions to this problem. Some in the Reddit thread mentioned that adblockers like uBlock Origin still work without issues, while others turn to extensions like Ad Speedup, which automatically accelerate ads up to 16 times. Another ingenious solution that users have discovered is using a VPN to set their location to Albania, a country where Google’s advertising platform does not yet support the language, thus allowing them to avoid YouTube ads.
It should be noted that not all adblockers have these issues. Most of the reports come from AdBlock users, while other ad blockers do not seem to be affected. Additionally, there are reports of users experiencing these problems without having an adblocker installed, although these cases are a minority.
