YouTube doesn’t like it when you block ads, that’s a fact. In early October, the platform started warning users that it would prevent them from watching videos if they have an ad blocker enabled. Despite it being just a warning, some users soon saw a new banner informing them that they could only watch 3 videos with the ad blocker activated.
And it’s because ad blockers cause both YouTube itself and content creators to lose a significant amount of money, something that has been happening for many years and, as you can imagine, Google-owned company doesn’t like at all. But, while these banners only appeared to some users before, from now on, many more people will see them.
In a statement sent to The Verge, YouTube’s Director of Communications, Christopher Lawton, stated that the company has “rolled out a global measure” to encourage users to allow ads (meaning, disable any active ad blocker) or try YouTube Premium, the paid subscription that, among other benefits, removes ads without negatively impacting the earnings of content creators.
If you use an ad blocker, it’s likely that the next time you want to watch a video, a banner will appear telling you that “video playback is blocked unless YouTube is on the allowed list (of the ad blocker) or the ad blocker is disabled,” without any option to close the banner and watch the video, as was the case before.
According to Lawton, the “use of ad blockers” would violate the platform’s terms of service, adding that “ads support a diverse ecosystem of creators worldwide and enable billions of people to access their favorite content on YouTube.”
