YouTube is continuing its crackdown on people using an adblocker.
On subreddit r/youtube, users who have adblockers enabled are reporting strange behavior such as muted videos or videos that automatically skip to the end. One user posted an example of a video skipping to the very end when played.
According to the post and comments, users who try to replay the video simply encounter the same problem again. Several others pointed out additional issues with sound: “there’s no sound whenever i use ad blocker on YT”, one wrote. “You can adjust the volume slider for a second then it goes mute again.”
“You can only hear something when you turn the volume up or down,” wrote another. “But as soon as you ‘let go’ of the volume control the audio turns silent.”
Those who disabled their adblockers were able to watch YouTube without such problems, and with the return of ads. Others said they had to uninstall the adblocker they use and opt for a different one.
Last month, the video platform began a harsher crackdown on adblockers, with YouTube blocking some third-party apps and some users experiencing playback errors. YouTube acknowledged this, writing in an update, “We’re strengthening our enforcement on third-party apps that violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, specifically ad-blocking apps. Viewers who are using these third-party apps may experience buffering issues or see the error ‘The following content is not available on this app’ when trying to watch a video.”
YouTube also directed users towards YouTube Premium, saying that they can gain an entirely ad-free experience there. As Mashable’s Cecily Mauran reported, this is “a classic case of enshittification, or locking in users by offering a free service then gradually making it worse to force users to sign up for the premium version, but on the other hand, you could just sit through the ads.”
