I'm sure many of you are already aware that YouTube has been rolling out anti-adblock detection for Chrome users for a few weeks now.
Today, as a long time Firefox user with the fantastic uBlock Origin extension installed, I got my first anti-adblock popup on the platform. Note that this may not happen to you personally for a while, but it is inevitably coming for everyone.
Thankfully, the fine folks at uBlock Origin have already advised a simple workaround (on Reddit, yuck!) which I will duplicate in a simplified form below for your convenience. I have tested it on Firefox and it is working fine for me (so far).
PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW ALL OF THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THIS POST.
Update uBO to the latest version (1.52.0+) . <== The extension itself, for technical improvements. You do this in your browser.
Remove your custom config / reset to defaults. <== This means removing your custom filters (or disabling My filters) and disabling ALL additional lists you've enabled. It might be quicker to make a backup of your config and restore to defaults instead.
Force an update of your Filter Lists. <== This is within the extension. Lists are what determine what's blocked or not. How to update Filter lists: Click 🛡️ uBO's icon > the ⚙ Dashboard button > the Filter lists pane > the 🕘 Purge all caches button > the 🔃 Update now button.
Disable all other extensions AND your browser's built-in blockers. <== No need to uninstall, just disable them. They might interfere with our solutions.
Make sure you follow all 4 points above. If you're seeing the message, it's likely due to your custom config (either additional lists or separate filters in My filters).
Restarting your browser afterwards may help too.
Once you've gotten rid of the issue on default settings, you can slowly start restoring your config (if you really need it). Do it gradually, to easier find out what was causing the issue in the first place. Once you find the culprit, simply skip it in your config.
If you want to use Enhancer for YouTube*, you have to* disable its adblocking*.*
May the ~~force~~ uBlock Origin be with you!
Update
Just wanted to mention a few things that have been pointed out in the comments:
- There are quite a few projects that provide an alternative ad-free front end to YouTube. These include Invidious, FreeTube, LibreTube, Newpipe, Revanced, and I'm sure there are several more options I've missed. I don't have any particular preference really but I routinely use NewPipe on my cellphone just because I tried it once and couldn't be bothered trying all the others.
- In step 4 listed above, to clarify, afaik you only need to remove adblocker extensions (if you have more than one installed) that might conflict with the uBlock Origin rules and trigger the anti-adblock, not all extensions.
- If you hate non-stop ads but want to support your favorite content creators then be sure to give them some love on Patreon or whatever alternative options they provide. Creators typically make only a tiny, tiny fraction of what YouTube makes in ad revenue, assuming YouTube doesn't just outright steal the lot, and it's a shitty business model that's ruining the internet. Even if you watch the ads, you're only supporting YouTube most of the time, not the creators.
While I'm thankful for the team at uBlock Origin, I still wouldn't call it greedy that a company that provides a quite excellent free video streaming platform, would also like to make a little profit from it too or at the very least to cover the expenses.
They already do make more than "a little profit" from YouTube. The shareholders demand infinite growth tho, so Google has to nickle and dime their users for even more profit. The bane of any publicly traded company.
Can we be sure about that? YT is owned by Alphabet, a publicly traded company. However, they have chosen not to disclose the financial statements of YT, thus not telling investors about profits or losses. Now think about it: if you had a cash cow that was making you a fortune, wouldn't you want to disclose that to investors, make it public, so that your company (and the stock you own in it) is worth more? And yet they don't do that, which makes me (and Louis Rossman apparently) think that YT is likely not as profitable as we may think, if it even turns a profit. The ad business, especially now, is not doing well, which coincides with YT's crackdown on ad blocking. Why would that be? Probably because they are at a loss rn, and are truing to make that back by forcing users to watch ads.
Youtube may be making a loss, but Google is not and they are better off keeping users in their ecosystem. If there was a viable alternative, I doubt this would be happening. There isn't though, and with no competition anymore they're free to capitalize and attempt to make as much profit as possible.
That's why I was going through my list of Youtubers I've subscribed to the other day. So basically, many of them are on Odyssey or PeerTube, and some have their own podcasts and blogs, so I'll be able to keep up with most of the creators I follow on YT, and the work they do.
I have been using YouTube almost since the day one. I've watched tens of thousands of hours of free content, and I've not watched a single ad. If their every user was like me, then how could they make any profit from it? Now the profit comes from the people that do watch those ads aswell as people who pay for premium. What does that make me then? A freerider.
You're still adding views to the video and engage by liking which is good for the influence metrics. Google uses that to ask for higher prices to show ads on that video. Well, they give the influence metrics to advertisers and they have to decide themselves how much showing an ad on this video would be worth for them. It's like an instant auction, there is no fixed price. So, while you are freeriding, the compensation of you not seeing ads is mainly covered by advertisers.
To be clear, advertisers are not paying more because they pay Google for an ad that is blocked (that's not happening), they pay more because Google uses your views to tell advertisers that this video is a good investment.
You adding views to some random video absolutely does not offset the cost of your usage through ads. Ads can make a surprising amount of money for a platform (upwards of 4 or 5 dollars a month per free user). Based on YouTube removing premium Lite, I think it's actually very safe to assume that the consumption of free users is around that, so approximately $7 per month on average. Do you honestly think this would offset that cost in any universe?
It's okay to want stuff for free. Just make sure you fully understand the consequences and don't try to play it off like you're the good guy.
Google is also keeping you in their ecosystem. Doing so allows them to learn from user behaviors and other things that make money. YouTube doesn't need to make money for Google to make money from YouTube users.
It's not the advertising that's the problem, it's the tracking and surveillance that comes with it. Until they get rid of that, uBlock Origin is a necessary security measure.
To me it is the advertising that is the problem. Without ads, there's no need for collecting user data either. Even if it's non-targeted ads, that would still make the advertisers the customer, not the people watching those videos. This incentivizes them to optimize the platform to please the advertisers, not the users, resulting in a worse service.
I understand why many people feel like the option to have non-targeted ads instead of monthly fee seems tempting, but in my opinion this doesn't solve the root of the problem, which is the ads-based bussines model. It's what makes everything go to shit.
Ad based models aren't great, but the alternative is subscription based. And we know exactly what the internet feels about that. Look at the amount of people here in this thread given that exact choice and refusing to pay
Yeah but those same people are already paying for Spotify, Netflix, Disney+ and so on. I'm not some bussines genious, so I'm obviously talking out of my ass, but I'd imagine if YouTube had switched to a affordable subscribtion model like 5 years ago, today we'd have a much better platform. I don't think it's so much the subscribtion model itself that's the issue, but the transition from a free platform to paid one.
Monthly fee for everyone or you mean freemium? Freemium in my opinion wont be enough to cover the cost, because works well only with services with low cost per-user. And monthly fee for everyone is a very hight incentive of not using YouTube.
The irony is if they did have non-targeted ads I'd have more good-will towards them and I would be more likely to pay their subscription. But spying on users and being sneaky about it makes me hostile and want to double-down against what they want.
Original YouTube, before Google, was one of many Video streaming websites -- living alongside competitors such as Dailymotion, Vimeo... And Google video. Those guys, yes, would've deserved this sort of compassion.
Google's YouTube is an evil entity that bruteforced itself into a de facto monopoly, routinely changes the rules for content creators that have built the platform and often depend on it for their living, allows a predatory system of copyright trolls to thrive at the expense of the creators, frequently allows creators to be robbed of their channel and income by arbitrary strikes while being completely deaf to requests for help, leverages Google's power to crush potential competitors, influence public opinion, stifle free speech... I could go on. Sympathy for such an entity, quite frankly, for me, is a form of Stockholm syndrome.
Whether you like their actions or not, they still have bills to pay
the nature of the web is that you are sent information and a suggestion of how to render it. The user is free to view as little or as much of that content as they decide.
"ad blockers arent allowed on youtube" is an insane statement. ad blockers arent on youtube. you are just being selective about which content you render.
it is greedy to try and rewrite the fundamental workings of the web because you feel entitled to profit.
Okay, let's get rid of all ads and move to subscriptions across the entire internet. What a fantastic idea.
Donations work too.
Donations don't work by themselves. Pretty much ever.
Hell yes, lets do it
You know you could just subscribe to remove them anyways right? I don't see the difference here
Maybe expecting payment for freely given information isn't actually a good business model.
Corporations have taken the 'supermarket chain' methodology of using huge amounts of capital to cement themselves as the standard until competition dies and then hiking the prices. But i don't think that actually works for the web. They get all the users and sink (or buy out) the little guys, sure. But how many of these platforms are able to turn that into profit?
As the platforms become more and more desperate, they bend further and further to advertiser's whims and everyone suffers. Its not like they're really paying content creators anyway. Most of them make their money from patreon/etc.
I cant stop giant corporations from breaking the web but i'm not going to pretend that disabling my adblocker would be helping some small struggling company, and im certainly not going to thank them for it
Along with what the other comment says, it's also how intrusive it is. If it was in-line ads or banner ads or something that'd be one thing. It's constant ads that stop videos though. Even short videos I feel like you get multiple ad breaks. It's horrible.