YouTube Doubles-down on Ad Blockers once Again
YouTube has had a long and colorful history with ad-blocking software. While ads are a majority of how the platform (as well as its creators) make profits, they are deemed as too obtrusive at times, prompting users to find ways to circumvent their appearance. As such, YouTube (via Google) has again reiterated that it will not condone the use of third-party ad-blockers on the site, as per a new announcement.
According to Google’s official support page, viewers who use third-party apps might experience issues with buffering, and may be presented with an error message stating “The following content is not available on this app” when attempting to watch videos. Part of the advisory reads:
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. We want to emphasize that our terms don’t allow third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership, and Ads on YouTube help support creators and let billions of people around the world use the streaming service.
The company goes on to state that users who’d prefer an ad-free experience on YouTube can sign up for YouTube Premium, a subscription-based tier that provides ad-free watching.
Source: Google