Youtube is testing a feature that prevents users using ad blockers from playing videos on an account that doesn’t have one premium subscriptionsince he points out that it is thanks to advertising that YouTube can remain free.
The blockers Ad blocker is a program or extension that is installed in the web browser to filter the content and, as the name suggests, block ads while browsing the Internet. These blockers can also be used on YouTube, so that users advertisements that are displayed before playing a video or in the middle of the display are blocked and do not interrupt the ad-supported content.
Faced with this, YouTube is testing an option that does not allow play content on its platform if it detects the use of one of these ad-blocking programs, as some users on Reddit have pointed out.
Specifically, the platform launches a notification in the form of a pop-up window indicating that an ad-blocker is being used. After that, it exposes two options to be able to continue watching videos: on the one hand, create a YouTube Premium which does not include advertising, and on the other hand, disable ad blockers and continue enjoying YouTube gratuitousbut with advertising.
Likewise, YouTube remembers in this notification the importance of advertising to the platform, as ads allow it to continue to be freely available to “billions of users around the world.”
Following this line, YouTube itself has confirmed that they are testing this blocking function in order to encourage users to use a premium subscription account or, in any case, allow ads to continue to be displayed in the videos, as a YouTube spokesperson has expressed in statements for BleepingComputer collected by Europa Press.
“The detection of ad blockers is not new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to disable ad blockers,” a YouTube spokesperson said in this regard.