UPDATE 2 It seems that starting today, uBlock Origin is working to combat this Youtube Block. Mine started working again! Lets all thank the devs of UBO for fighting this fight!

UPDATE So as new info comes out, I'll be posting it here. It seems as if this Rollout Has Several Parts.

Part 1

You get a popup message over top of your video, blocking the screen: *removed externally hosted image*

  • This is the first sign. If you see this popup AND are logged into a YouTube account, your account has been selected.
  • At this stage you can likely close or block these messages with an adblocker.

Part 2

This message will change, indicating that you have 3 remaining videos to watch without ads.

Will insert photo once one has been found

  • At this stage your adblocker will imminently stop working in 3 videos time.
  • Personally using Firefox + uBlock Origin and tweaking filters and updates does not even fix it.

Part 3

None of the video loads now, everything looks blank.

*removed externally hosted image*

  • At this stage you must tred new ground to avoid ads. I have posted methods in the comments. If you want to bypass this end page, read down there.

End of Update


YouTube has started rolling out anti-adblock to users inside the United States, which means that they are preparing to roll this out to the entire country. Personally, I have been blocked already. I want to gauge how common this occurrence is.

  • @Landrin201@lemmy.ml
    hexbear
    75
    10 months ago

    I genuinely think that advertising should be illegal at this point. It's a ridiculous concept.

    • Venus [she/her]
      hexbear
      43
      10 months ago

      Based. Absolutely true, there is no good use for advertising.

      • @merc@sh.itjust.works
        hexbear
        5
        10 months ago

        How do you define "advertising"?

        Is it advertising if a community government makes citizens aware that bus service will be changing?

        Is it advertising to tell people that there's a suicide hotline available if they need help?

        Is it advertising to encourage people to volunteer for a local festival?

        What about telling people that the festival exists using a poster? Is that an ad? Does it depend if the festival is free or non-profit?

        Advertising is just fundamentally about bringing people's attention to something. The spectrum can range from a municipal government "advertising" its monthly meeting so that local people can participate in their local democracy, to spam emails hyping a pump-and-dump cryptocurrency.

        Different people will have different ideas where the cut-off should be. The extreme libertarians will say that nothing should be banned. Others will say that it's ok to ban ads for alcohol and cigarettes but not for makeup or coffee. Even totalitarian states and supposedly communist states where one entity controls all companies have ads. Some of the most striking ads ever made were for Mussolini.

        So, the question really isn't about banning ads, it's just where to draw the line.

        • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
          hexbear
          3
          10 months ago

          An increasing number of states are banning billboards along highways. Travelers do need a low tech method for finding certain services though, such as food, lodging, fuel and restrooms. So you'll see those blue signs that says "FOOD NEXT EXIT" with a Waffle House and Burger King logo. In order to put the logo on that sign, the business has to meet certain criteria (which vary from state to state like all highway laws), for example a restaurant must be within 3 miles of the highway, be open for at least 12 hours a day and feature public restrooms and telephones. The sign itself may include a distinctive logo and the name of the business in legible font but no slogans or ad copy. "This burger restaurant is nearby."

          This I see as an appropriate amount of advertising.

  • @henfredemars@infosec.pub
    hexbear
    59
    10 months ago

    This is such a better use of their time and dollars versus improving their service to make it more attractive to customers.

    If this is the change that really sets them financially straight, then I would say they have a failing business model.

    • @splendoruranium@infosec.pub
      hexbear
      25
      10 months ago

      This is such a better use of their time and dollars versus improving their service to make it more attractive to customers.

      Making their service more attractive to customers is precicesly what they're trying to do.

      It's just that an advertising agency's customers are not the folk who watch, read or hear the ads, it's the folk who pay for the ads.

        • machinya [it/its, fae/faer]
          hexbear
          11
          10 months ago

          capitalism (or at least the weird version of it used in the tech world) is about short term profit. if they get good numbers from this, they can make future projections of an imaginary increase over the years and make the ad companies happy for a while. they do not care about breaking the product in the long term

          • @theshatterstone54@feddit.uk
            hexbear
            1
            10 months ago

            I know. This was just the intelligent person view. In reality, as you said, they only care about short term profit, and can you blame them? Things can change overnight in the tech world. Google (as a product) was undisputed until ChatGPT was released and integrated into Bing, now Alphabet is falling vehind and losing its dominance on the market.

    • @Landrin201@lemmy.ml
      hexbear
      12
      10 months ago

      If premium cost $5per month I'd pay for it, u use YouTube all the time

      No way in hell it's worth $15 a month though, their pricing is completely brwindead

      • @Petter1@lemm.ee
        hexbear
        4
        10 months ago

        Just make a (digital) trip to India and get family of 5 accounts for about 1$ a month per account. This the way I did it.

      • @charles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
        hexbear
        2
        10 months ago

        It's $25/mo for family. I hate that I pay for it, but I use music, and I mostly watch YouTube on a streaming device, so I've never been able to use ad blockers. $15 for the fam felt worth it, but $25 has me rethinking. Maybe I can configure YT-DL to get the shows I care about on my Plex

      • @IIIIII@sh.itjust.works
        hexbear
        1
        10 months ago

        I agree. It’s around $22 NZD and that is just too steep. They have a slightly cheaper one but you can’t background play with it. I’m sick of being nickel and dimed at every possible opportunity and then hearing about how these companies are making record profits.

  • @speq@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    hexbear
    59
    10 months ago

    For those who don't know: VLC also takes a YouTube video address as input (in the menu: Media | Open Network Stream...).

  • cosecantphi [he/him]
    hexbear
    58
    10 months ago

    Youtube's use of A/B testing is very smart in that it's actually nothing about testing user response and all about limiting the number of people they piss off at once with their god awful changes.

    The day I can't block ads on the internet is the day I stop using the internet.

    • AcidSmiley [she/her]
      hexbear
      18
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      yeah this, youtube inb particular is entirely unusable without an adblocker

  • @Honse@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    hexagon
    hexbear
    57
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    I'm going to start a discussion in the comments here about methods to bypass the message. I will add suggestions here, so leave comments if you find a method!

    Methods to bypass Youtube Anti-Adblock:

    • The easiest method is simply to comply and turn off your adblock extension.

    My Method

    • My method, and the one that will likely work universally is as follows:

    Install Extension Enhancer for YouTube™

    Go to the extensions settings and ensure that under the Ads Management section, "Block Ads" is turned OFF

    *removed externally hosted image*

    Now find the Custom Script box at the very bottom and enter the following script. I did not write this code, it comes from egaudette on GitHub

    (function() {
        'use strict';
        var clickInterval = setInterval(skipAds, 5);
        var ytpAdModule;
        var miniAdd;
        var skipButton;
        var currentVideo;
    
        function skipAds() {
            ytpAdModule = document.querySelector('.ytp-ad-module');
            skipButton = document.querySelector('button[class*="ad-skip"]');
            miniAdd = document.querySelector('.ytp-ad-overlay-container');
    
            if (ytpAdModule !== null && ytpAdModule.innerHTML !== '') {
                ytpAdModule.style.display = 'none';
            }
    
            if (skipButton !== null) {
                skipButton.click();
                return;
            }
    
            currentVideo = document.querySelector('video[class*="main-video"]')
            if (currentVideo !== null && currentVideo.duration <= 5) {
                currentVideo.muted = true;
                currentVideo.play();
                currentVideo.currentTime = currentVideo.duration;
            }
        }
    })();
    

    Lastly, ensure the "Automatically execute the script when YouTube is loaded in a tab" box is checked, and press Save

    *removed externally hosted image*


    I'll add more methods as they are discovered!

  • Melody Fwygon@lemmy.one
    hexbear
    35
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    Here's a rule for uBlock Origin.

    Credit: https://lemmy.one/comment/597479 && original link: https://lemmy.nz/comment/446556

    ! Anti-Youtube Anti-Adblocker https://lemmy.one/comment/597479

    youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.openPopupConfig.supportedPopups.adBlockMessageViewModel, false)

    youtube.com##+js(set, Object.prototype.adBlocksFound, 0)

    youtube.com##+js(set, ytplayer.config.args.raw_player_response.adPlacements, [])

    youtube.com##+js(set, Object.prototype.hasAllowedInstreamAd, true)

  • Venus [she/her]
    hexbear
    35
    10 months ago

    What happens to me now with Firefox and ublock origin is if i leave a video paused in the background for a long time and then it unloads it and then I click it to continue watching so it loads back up, then it plays an ad. I was legit like cat-confused because I haven't seen an ad on the internet in years.

    • Mr. w00t@lemmy.ml
      hexbear
      4
      10 months ago

      Yep, same here. Today I've been abruptly reminded how intrusive and obnoxious ads on Youtube are!

      Show

    • @denton@lemm.ee
      hexbear
      4
      10 months ago

      Same! I was taken aback and offended all at once then refreshed to get rid of the ad which thankfully still works... But for how long more is the question 😭

  • Refurbished Refurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org
    hexbear
    26
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    I haven't used youtube.com to watch YouTube in years. NewPipe x SponsorBlock (polymorphicshade) on mobile, SmartTubeNext on TV, Invidious, Piped, or FreeTube on desktop.

    • @riley0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      hexbear
      8
      10 months ago

      Thanks! Freetube works great. Here are directions for importing YT subscriptions. https://docs.freetubeapp.io/usage/importing-subscriptions/

  • Faceman🇦🇺@discuss.tchncs.de
    hexbear
    20
    10 months ago

    Just a tip for those of you that do cave to pressure and go with the paid premium option. or already have one but dont want to pay for more accounts or a family account.

    You can set up channels or brand accounts as sub-accounts on a premium subscription and they will act like separate accounts with the advantages of premium, so if you have a large family and don't want to pay for the full family subscription (which only has 5 slots anyway) you can set up a few sub-accounts that each get their own subscriptions, recommendations, settings and all have the premium features.

    So if you want to make a premium account for a parent or child, you can do that with one single subscription if you can take the caveat of them being brand accounts rather than fully their own thing.

    This works on things like Android TV or Google TV, but you need to log into the main account then switch to a sub account in the app, however, there is no authentication to switch between channel accounts this way, so it's really only useable for families only. I use this at home to run 4 separate nvidia shield youtube apps with their own subscriptions and recommendations on one single premium payment.

    I expect they will change how that works in the future to remove the loophole, probably by charging for channel accounts or having it locked behind some kind of overpriced professional usage tier, but for now, it might be a good option for some.

    • @Psythik@lemm.ee
      hexbear
      6
      10 months ago

      Damn, I just recently switched to Ungoogled Chromium, just for YouTube (still use Firefox for everything else.) I did this for HDR and RTX Video Super Resolution, since Firefox supports neither. Looks like I'm going to have to live without now.