The tech industry is going through tough times and YouTube is no exception. The online video sharing platform is currently facing a decline in advertising revenue, and as a result, it is implementing significant changes to its platform. These changes include increasing the number of ads on videos and focusing on attracting more users to its paid premium membership. However, this is not all. The company is now also reportedly cracking down on users who use ad-blockers to remove ads and are not paying for paid subscriptions.
Recently, a Reddit user pointed out the fact that Google-owned YouTube is enforcing restrictions on users who use ad blockers by limiting their video views. The post includes a screenshot showing a pop-up notification sent by YouTube to users who have enabled the ad blocker.
The notification released by YouTube warns users that if they do not disable their ad blocker, the platform will restrict their viewing of videos, limiting it to only three videos. The notification said, “The video player will be blocked after 3 videos – looks like you may be using an ad blocker. Video playback will be blocked until YouTube allows or disables the ad blocker.”
The notification also stresses the importance of keeping YouTube ad-free for billions of users around the world. It suggests that users can enjoy an ad-free experience by subscribing to YouTube Premium, as well as enable creators to earn revenue from their subscriptions. The message further reads, “Ads allow YouTube to remain free for billions of users around the world. You can go ad-free with YouTube Premium, and creators can still get paid from your subscription.”
Specifically, once users receive this warning, they will be left with two options on YouTube: either disable their ad blocker and allow ads to appear, or use YouTube Premium to eliminate all ads.
YouTube has also officially confirmed this action and said that these notifications are part of an experiment. The company encourages viewers to consider either enabling ads on the platform or trying YouTube Premium as an alternative. “We’re running a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to either allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium,” YouTube said in a statement obtained by BleepingComputer.
YouTube has further clarified that the platform may temporarily block playback in “extreme cases” if users fail to comply with the notification and continue to ignore requests to disable their ad blockers. However, the company assures that this measure will only be implemented if viewers continue to ignore repeated requests to enable ads on YouTube.
“In extreme cases, where viewers continue to use ad blockers, playback will be temporarily disabled. We take the disabling of playback very seriously, and will only disable playback if the viewer allows ads on YouTube.” ignore repeated requests to give,” the company further told the publication. ,
To prevent any such inconvenience, YouTube says users can continue watching videos on the platform by placing ads or block ads by subscribing to YouTube Premium.
Significantly, YouTube has not yet confirmed how many countries are involved in this experiment and who is seeing these warnings. However, the recent action follows YouTube’s previous “short experiment” that began in May, during which the company began directly blocking ad blocker users from accessing the platform.
Notably, YouTube is experiencing rapid growth in its music and premium subscriptions, despite declining revenue. A report by Variety suggests that the platform has more than 80 million paying customers combined (by the end of 2022), a significant increase of 30 million from the 50 million the company announced in September 2021.
