6 ms·

YouTube: Adblockers violate YouTube's terms of service

27 points by behnamoh 3y ago

wowgoldfarmer 3y ago
ads infect your consciousness should be avoided at all cost
wowgoldfarmer 3y ago
How do I use ublock origin rules in safari browser on mac? (using safari because of battery consumption :(..)
7ac07a 3y ago
[flagged]
cebert 3y ago
See related thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150 YouTube will be rolling out more aggressive Adblock detection. If you don’t like ads and desire to continue using the service, it’s time to consider paying for it.
- mortallywounded 3y ago
  Or, get a better adblocker.
- Kim_Bruning 3y ago
  No. Anything that blocks adblockers does not get my support. The adblocker is there for my own comfort, safety and security. Anyone who asks me to disable it is not my friend. Virus scanners and adblockers serve a similar purpose these days, they prevent access by malicious actors. If a service asks you to disable the virus scanner, would you do that too? If they want me to pay for content produced by 3rd parties... sure, if they're distributing that money fairly to those parties why not? But I'd still run an adblocker. The argument "If you don’t like ads and desire to continue using the service, it’s time to consider paying for it." doesn't make sense to me. Anytime any service has asked to be paid to avoid ads? Ads got added on later on anyway.
  - smolyeet 3y ago
    What kind of mental gymnastics? You think you’re entitled to use a service with an adblocker instead of the service they offer supported by ads/subscription? So you just want to use a service for free?
    - 36933 3y ago
      It was free before and can be free now. What kind of mental gymnastics do you have to do to justify the greed? Ads are dangerous. You’re entitled to protect yourself.
    - prepend 3y ago
      Is google entitled to force me to view ads? I’m entitled to view whatever data comes into my device in whatever order I desire. Entitlements aren’t all bad. In the US, social security is an entitlement. Are you against that too? Corporations don’t get to override human dignity because it makes them more money. When talking about humans vs corporations, I think I try to default the entitlements to the human.
      - dangus 3y ago
        You're entitled to do whatever you want with your client, but YouTube is equally entitled not to serve you content if they detect that you're using an ad blocker.
    - smoldesu 3y ago
      Up until they actually stop serving me that content, yeah. I've backed up more than 2tb of YouTube channels I like and I've got no intention of stopping until they cut me off.
  - dangus 3y ago
    Well, are you willing to stop using YouTube or not? The way I see it, if everyone installs an ad blocker and nobody pays for Premium, there's nobody to pay for the hosting. > Anytime any service has asked to be paid to avoid ads? Ads got added on later on anyway. This was the case for live TV and sports, but that's more like a counterexample than a laundry list of ad-free subscription products. And, heck, the NFL actually added an ad-free subscription in 2009 (NFL Red Zone, "7 hours of commercial-free football"). Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Discovery+, Paramount+, Apple TV+, Spotify, Apple Music...where is this mythical streaming service that has ads in its highest tier paid version? Can you find one? Some providers might eventually serve ads to their premium tiers, but there isn't much precedent outside of live TV and sports, especially if you expand your view to include SaaS products (e.g., subscribing to a mobile app like MyFitnessPal to remove ads). Meanwhile, your comment suggests that every premium subscription service will eventually get ads, even though the vast majority of them offer a completely ad-free package through the present day.
- throwaway67743 3y ago
  Or use an alternative frontend, or download the videos first? Why would I pay for content that isn't monetised and thus the "creator" (for lack of a better word) gets nothing anyway? I'm not going to fund Google, they already get some from reading my (spam) emails.
  - gruez 3y ago
    >Or use an alternative frontend, or download the videos first? If they're going to roll out anti-adblock code, what makes you think they won't be going after unofficial third party clients?
    - Kim_Bruning 3y ago
      Already have been for a long time.
    - throwaway67743 3y ago
      They do, and invariably fail but I'd argue trying to hide an adblocker is going to be more tricky than pretending to be android, for example. But both downloading and alternative frontends still work fine, I just got the message on youtube for the first time (only on desktop though, not android, firefox on both), minor inconvenience to run yt-dlp in an internet accessible folder and means I retain the content should their random behaviour make it unavailable in the future.
      - gruez 3y ago
        > They do, and invariably fail but I'd argue trying to hide an adblocker is going to be more tricky than pretending to be android, for example. AFAIK thirdparty youtube clients are just a glorified webview. Also, if anything pretending to be android is way harder than pretending to be a browser. There's way more fingerprinting/attestation that's available on android than through javascript APIs.
        throwaway67743 3y ago
- behnamoh 3y ago
  It's not just about ads though—I use uBlock to "detox" many websites by hiding certain HTML elements.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- mvncleaninst 3y ago
  > If you don’t like ads and desire to continue using the service, it’s time to consider paying for it. Or maybe just use something like AdNauseum that just emits a bunch of noise
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- prepend 3y ago
  > If you don’t like ads and desire to continue using the service, it’s time to consider paying for it. Or just get better ad blockers. I think it’s a pretty fundamental right that I choose what to do with data sent to me. Should televisions not be able to use the mute button during ads?
  - polishdude20 3y ago
    That's exactly it. It's like a tv network disabling your mute button whenever you see a commercial. You can send me data but how I view it once it's on my network is my right. Just like mail.
    - idonotknowwhy 3y ago
      Gl with that, I'd be soldering in a switch to the speaker wire if they tried that
  - idiotsecant 3y ago
    If everyone just uses ad blockers, the system doesn't work. YouTube goes away tomorrow. If you go to a nice country park with an honor system tip jar you can say that it's your fundamental right to go anywhere that someone doesn't stop you but if everyone did that the park wouldn't have money for upkeep. At a certain point this isn't the wild West anymore, and these services need to keep the lights on. I personally feel like ads are phycological warfare and find them detestable but I also recognize that means I need to support the service somehow else or I'm a net drain on the system.
    - prepend 3y ago
      A tip jar is not ads. A nice park with a tip jar might work. If it didn’t work, the park wouldnt cease to exist, but people would find a different funding model. Taxes that fund parks definitely work. Remember that public parks are a pretty recent innovation. Imaging someone saying of private gardens in 1700 “if the king didn’t pay for a park, the park would cease to exist” as a justification for an oppressive monarchy. YouTube will continue to exist without ads. Business models change. It may make less profit margin, but saying it will cease to exist is hysterical hyperbole.
- shard972 3y ago
  [dead]
gigel82 3y ago
My concern is... does this violate Google's overall terms of service and is there a risk of disabling your gmail account over it?
- prirun 3y ago
  My advice: dump Gmail before Google dumps you.
- lucasyvas 3y ago
  If the answer became yes it would be the catalyst to get me to finally move off gmail. I've considered it numerous times but it's hard to kick - if it's at risk of being taken away it effectively forces my hand. Not only that, I'd move off Google completely including Android.
- huytersd 3y ago
  I think that risk is basically non existent. At worst they stop you from being able to watch videos.
- idiotsecant 3y ago
  Nightmare scenario. I'm so bound to Gmail it gives me cold sweats thinking about it. Honestly if they threatened that I'd cough up monthly for the premium please don't delete me package
littlecranky67 3y ago
Its questionable whether Youtube (just as any others) ToS are enforceable and just within your jurisdiction. Youtube is free to require logins and chose to terminate accounts when violating. As long as public video playback is supported and no DRM involved, I am free to block ads and even download content from within my jurisdiction (Germany).
i8comments 3y ago
My government manipulates the ads, recommended and related videos on Youtube for certain people. Invidious at least has no ads, and you can get rid of the recommended and related sidebar.
- the_biot 3y ago
  Which government is this?
herunan 3y ago
I’d love a mixed model where I pay to watch the top 3 creators that I follow using my own money in exchange for not viewing ads on their channel. Then all the other random channels can serve me ads.
- basiccalendar74 3y ago
  if your watch time is mostly for top 3 creators, they anyway get a big chunk of 51% of subscription price.
- KomoD 3y ago
  At that point just pay for Youtube Premium.
- behnamoh 3y ago
  too complicated for ordinary users
plastic_bag 3y ago
I pay for YouTube Premium in India. It's ultra cheap here. 2.16 USD per month for both YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium for a family of 6. That comes down to 36 cents per person per month. But I still use the Revanced app on my phone and watch YouTube on my desktop with uBlock turned on for two reasons: 1. I can't stand Shorts. 2. I don't like the clickbait-y and cringe inducing thumbnails that every creator uses now.
- Brajeshwar 3y ago
  Pssssttttt! I have had a family subscription ever since they introduced the option in India. However, people think I'm crazy for, "something that you get for free." So, I tend to keep quiet amongst friends and I just shrug, "yeah, I just block all ads at the door of the Internet as it enters our home." Youtube Premium is definitely worth it and economically viable to subscribe, here in India. (Similar story with Spotify.) Update: just saw your edited comment. How do you turn off Shorts?
  - idonotknowwhy 3y ago
    Doesn't cover sponsor block though
    - plastic_bag 3y ago
      True. But you could install the Sponsorblock extension. And if you are on Android you could also use the Revanced YouTube. I pay for YouTube Premium because my mum uses an old Android phone and Revanced YouTube doesn't work on it. Also, my sister's kids watch YouTube on TV and they start crying rather loudly whenever an ad comes on.
  - plastic_bag 3y ago
    I use uBlock to filter out Shorts on web. https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/143mdqv/ https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/143mdqv/ And I use Revanced YouTube on my phone.
- 998244353 3y ago
redder23 3y ago
I will do everything I can to never use YT with ads. If they show this shit to me I am out, looking for different solutions. And hell no, I am not supporting evil companies like Google with premium subscriptions. If I have to leave YT and only use Rumble and others video sites I will do that. So far yt-dlp is also a thing to just download and watch vids. The will never ever bully me into watching stupid ads. Creators now often have their in-video ad-reads, sponsors that I can not avoid yet. As soon as some AI comes out that filters out ad-reads I will use them for most stuff. If I want to support creators I do in a more direct way, and I am perfectly fine with admitting that this rarely happens. I do not think most of the shit I watch is very valuable, most of it is just a giant time sucker. I did not have any message like that, living in the EU. It's some limited roll-out. What I did have recently that videos were not starting and the time was displayed wrong and it seemed like they were loading after an ad that was not showing finished. Probably just some thing in the filter lists that needed to get fixed.
- Brajeshwar 3y ago
  I believe you don't yet have kids. Besides the usual videos that kids like watching, there are a lot of topics in their books that I need help explaining. However, there are a lot of YouTubers explaining the topic pretty well. I can uBlock/AdGuard them or even spend many weekends to yt-dlp the heck out of it. Or I can pay a small monthly fee while 'reducing my coffee/tea purchases', and my kids get all the videos uninterrupted. This is indeed one of the only ways for my kids to get through Hindi and Math lessons.

27 points by behnamoh 3y ago

wowgoldfarmer 3y ago

ads infect your consciousness should be avoided at all cost

wowgoldfarmer 3y ago

How do I use ublock origin rules in safari browser on mac? (using safari because of battery consumption :(..)

7ac07a 3y ago

[flagged]

cebert 3y ago

See related thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150 YouTube will be rolling out more aggressive Adblock detection. If you don’t like ads and desire to continue using the service, it’s time to consider paying for it.

mortallywounded 3y ago
Or, get a better adblocker.
Kim_Bruning 3y ago
No. Anything that blocks adblockers does not get my support. The adblocker is there for my own comfort, safety and security. Anyone who asks me to disable it is not my friend. Virus scanners and adblockers serve a similar purpose these days, they prevent access by malicious actors. If a service asks you to disable the virus scanner, would you do that too? If they want me to pay for content produced by 3rd parties... sure, if they're distributing that money fairly to those parties why not? But I'd still run an adblocker. The argument "If you don’t like ads and desire to continue using the service, it’s time to consider paying for it." doesn't make sense to me. Anytime any service has asked to be paid to avoid ads? Ads got added on later on anyway.
- smolyeet 3y ago
  What kind of mental gymnastics? You think you’re entitled to use a service with an adblocker instead of the service they offer supported by ads/subscription? So you just want to use a service for free?
  - 36933 3y ago
    It was free before and can be free now. What kind of mental gymnastics do you have to do to justify the greed? Ads are dangerous. You’re entitled to protect yourself.
  - prepend 3y ago
    Is google entitled to force me to view ads? I’m entitled to view whatever data comes into my device in whatever order I desire. Entitlements aren’t all bad. In the US, social security is an entitlement. Are you against that too? Corporations don’t get to override human dignity because it makes them more money. When talking about humans vs corporations, I think I try to default the entitlements to the human.
    - dangus 3y ago
      You're entitled to do whatever you want with your client, but YouTube is equally entitled not to serve you content if they detect that you're using an ad blocker.
  - smoldesu 3y ago
    Up until they actually stop serving me that content, yeah. I've backed up more than 2tb of YouTube channels I like and I've got no intention of stopping until they cut me off.
- dangus 3y ago
  Well, are you willing to stop using YouTube or not? The way I see it, if everyone installs an ad blocker and nobody pays for Premium, there's nobody to pay for the hosting. > Anytime any service has asked to be paid to avoid ads? Ads got added on later on anyway. This was the case for live TV and sports, but that's more like a counterexample than a laundry list of ad-free subscription products. And, heck, the NFL actually added an ad-free subscription in 2009 (NFL Red Zone, "7 hours of commercial-free football"). Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Discovery+, Paramount+, Apple TV+, Spotify, Apple Music...where is this mythical streaming service that has ads in its highest tier paid version? Can you find one? Some providers might eventually serve ads to their premium tiers, but there isn't much precedent outside of live TV and sports, especially if you expand your view to include SaaS products (e.g., subscribing to a mobile app like MyFitnessPal to remove ads). Meanwhile, your comment suggests that every premium subscription service will eventually get ads, even though the vast majority of them offer a completely ad-free package through the present day.
throwaway67743 3y ago
Or use an alternative frontend, or download the videos first? Why would I pay for content that isn't monetised and thus the "creator" (for lack of a better word) gets nothing anyway? I'm not going to fund Google, they already get some from reading my (spam) emails.
- gruez 3y ago
  >Or use an alternative frontend, or download the videos first? If they're going to roll out anti-adblock code, what makes you think they won't be going after unofficial third party clients?
  - Kim_Bruning 3y ago
    Already have been for a long time.
  - throwaway67743 3y ago
    They do, and invariably fail but I'd argue trying to hide an adblocker is going to be more tricky than pretending to be android, for example. But both downloading and alternative frontends still work fine, I just got the message on youtube for the first time (only on desktop though, not android, firefox on both), minor inconvenience to run yt-dlp in an internet accessible folder and means I retain the content should their random behaviour make it unavailable in the future.
    - gruez 3y ago
      > They do, and invariably fail but I'd argue trying to hide an adblocker is going to be more tricky than pretending to be android, for example. AFAIK thirdparty youtube clients are just a glorified webview. Also, if anything pretending to be android is way harder than pretending to be a browser. There's way more fingerprinting/attestation that's available on android than through javascript APIs.
      - throwaway67743 3y ago
behnamoh 3y ago
It's not just about ads though—I use uBlock to "detox" many websites by hiding certain HTML elements.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
mvncleaninst 3y ago
> If you don’t like ads and desire to continue using the service, it’s time to consider paying for it. Or maybe just use something like AdNauseum that just emits a bunch of noise
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
prepend 3y ago
> If you don’t like ads and desire to continue using the service, it’s time to consider paying for it. Or just get better ad blockers. I think it’s a pretty fundamental right that I choose what to do with data sent to me. Should televisions not be able to use the mute button during ads?
- polishdude20 3y ago
  That's exactly it. It's like a tv network disabling your mute button whenever you see a commercial. You can send me data but how I view it once it's on my network is my right. Just like mail.
  - idonotknowwhy 3y ago
    Gl with that, I'd be soldering in a switch to the speaker wire if they tried that
- idiotsecant 3y ago
  If everyone just uses ad blockers, the system doesn't work. YouTube goes away tomorrow. If you go to a nice country park with an honor system tip jar you can say that it's your fundamental right to go anywhere that someone doesn't stop you but if everyone did that the park wouldn't have money for upkeep. At a certain point this isn't the wild West anymore, and these services need to keep the lights on. I personally feel like ads are phycological warfare and find them detestable but I also recognize that means I need to support the service somehow else or I'm a net drain on the system.
  - prepend 3y ago
    A tip jar is not ads. A nice park with a tip jar might work. If it didn’t work, the park wouldnt cease to exist, but people would find a different funding model. Taxes that fund parks definitely work. Remember that public parks are a pretty recent innovation. Imaging someone saying of private gardens in 1700 “if the king didn’t pay for a park, the park would cease to exist” as a justification for an oppressive monarchy. YouTube will continue to exist without ads. Business models change. It may make less profit margin, but saying it will cease to exist is hysterical hyperbole.
shard972 3y ago
[dead]

gigel82 3y ago

My concern is... does this violate Google's overall terms of service and is there a risk of disabling your gmail account over it?

prirun 3y ago
My advice: dump Gmail before Google dumps you.
lucasyvas 3y ago
If the answer became yes it would be the catalyst to get me to finally move off gmail. I've considered it numerous times but it's hard to kick - if it's at risk of being taken away it effectively forces my hand. Not only that, I'd move off Google completely including Android.
huytersd 3y ago
I think that risk is basically non existent. At worst they stop you from being able to watch videos.
idiotsecant 3y ago
Nightmare scenario. I'm so bound to Gmail it gives me cold sweats thinking about it. Honestly if they threatened that I'd cough up monthly for the premium please don't delete me package

littlecranky67 3y ago

Its questionable whether Youtube (just as any others) ToS are enforceable and just within your jurisdiction. Youtube is free to require logins and chose to terminate accounts when violating. As long as public video playback is supported and no DRM involved, I am free to block ads and even download content from within my jurisdiction (Germany).

i8comments 3y ago

My government manipulates the ads, recommended and related videos on Youtube for certain people. Invidious at least has no ads, and you can get rid of the recommended and related sidebar.

the_biot 3y ago
Which government is this?

herunan 3y ago

I’d love a mixed model where I pay to watch the top 3 creators that I follow using my own money in exchange for not viewing ads on their channel. Then all the other random channels can serve me ads.

basiccalendar74 3y ago
if your watch time is mostly for top 3 creators, they anyway get a big chunk of 51% of subscription price.
KomoD 3y ago
At that point just pay for Youtube Premium.
behnamoh 3y ago
too complicated for ordinary users

plastic_bag 3y ago

I pay for YouTube Premium in India. It's ultra cheap here. 2.16 USD per month for both YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium for a family of 6. That comes down to 36 cents per person per month. But I still use the Revanced app on my phone and watch YouTube on my desktop with uBlock turned on for two reasons: 1. I can't stand Shorts. 2. I don't like the clickbait-y and cringe inducing thumbnails that every creator uses now.

Brajeshwar 3y ago
Pssssttttt! I have had a family subscription ever since they introduced the option in India. However, people think I'm crazy for, "something that you get for free." So, I tend to keep quiet amongst friends and I just shrug, "yeah, I just block all ads at the door of the Internet as it enters our home." Youtube Premium is definitely worth it and economically viable to subscribe, here in India. (Similar story with Spotify.) Update: just saw your edited comment. How do you turn off Shorts?
- idonotknowwhy 3y ago
  Doesn't cover sponsor block though
  - plastic_bag 3y ago
    True. But you could install the Sponsorblock extension. And if you are on Android you could also use the Revanced YouTube. I pay for YouTube Premium because my mum uses an old Android phone and Revanced YouTube doesn't work on it. Also, my sister's kids watch YouTube on TV and they start crying rather loudly whenever an ad comes on.
- plastic_bag 3y ago
  I use uBlock to filter out Shorts on web. https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/143mdqv/ https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/143mdqv/ And I use Revanced YouTube on my phone.
998244353 3y ago

redder23 3y ago

I will do everything I can to never use YT with ads. If they show this shit to me I am out, looking for different solutions. And hell no, I am not supporting evil companies like Google with premium subscriptions. If I have to leave YT and only use Rumble and others video sites I will do that. So far yt-dlp is also a thing to just download and watch vids. The will never ever bully me into watching stupid ads. Creators now often have their in-video ad-reads, sponsors that I can not avoid yet. As soon as some AI comes out that filters out ad-reads I will use them for most stuff. If I want to support creators I do in a more direct way, and I am perfectly fine with admitting that this rarely happens. I do not think most of the shit I watch is very valuable, most of it is just a giant time sucker. I did not have any message like that, living in the EU. It's some limited roll-out. What I did have recently that videos were not starting and the time was displayed wrong and it seemed like they were loading after an ad that was not showing finished. Probably just some thing in the filter lists that needed to get fixed.

Brajeshwar 3y ago
I believe you don't yet have kids. Besides the usual videos that kids like watching, there are a lot of topics in their books that I need help explaining. However, there are a lot of YouTubers explaining the topic pretty well. I can uBlock/AdGuard them or even spend many weekends to yt-dlp the heck out of it. Or I can pay a small monthly fee while 'reducing my coffee/tea purchases', and my kids get all the videos uninterrupted. This is indeed one of the only ways for my kids to get through Hindi and Math lessons.