YouTube's crackdown on ad blockers just got more strict

YouTube has just tightened its defenses against users who use ad blockers while browsing videos on its platform. After rolling out a notification last year warning users with ad blockers that they will only be allowed to watch three videos on its platform before video playback is disabled, YouTube is now restricting users from using third-party ad-blocking apps to watch videos on its website.

“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,” said YouTube in a community post announcing the change. “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.”

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YouTube also emphasized in the announcement that it will take “appropriate action" to guard its "platform, creators, and viewers” when an app violates its terms. It also claimed that users can purchase its $13.99 a month Premium subscription in order to watch videos ad-free.

Content creators on YouTube make an average of roughly $0.018 per ad view, according to Influencer Marketing Hub, which means that a YouTuber can make $18 per 1,000 ad views. YouTubers also receive 55% of the ad revenue generated from their channels. For example, if an advertiser spends $100, Google, which owns YouTube, will pay the creator $55.

Many users took to social media platform X to express frustration with YouTube’s recent announcement revealing its tighter restrictions regarding the use of ad blockers.

Love youtube trying to stop people from avoiding their excessive ads instead of... oh I don't know... cracking down on the content they allow on their app in the first place?— PaulNewmaker (@PaulNewwriter) April 16, 2024

I would rather stop using YouTube than be forced to watch ads tbh— Robert Gregory (@Yamawarro) April 16, 2024

YouTube needs to mind their business. Most people block ads, not just because they are annoying, but also because lot of the ads are pretty inappropriate, which are all clearly targeted toward kids because no adult is going to click on them.— TotallySecretName (@GenCookieDough) April 16, 2024

In October last year, YouTube officially rolled out a pop-up notification warning users that they must remove ad block from their device in order to continue watching videos on its platform, and since then, it has seen a spike in ad revenue.

Alphabet  (GOOG) , which owns YouTube, revealed in its fourth-quarter earnings report for 2023 that it made $9.2 billion in YouTube ad revenue, which is a large increase from the $7.9 billion it made during the same time period in 2022.

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