Editor’s Note: This article has been amended to add a comment from an official YouTube spokesperson.
Some Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL YouTube users who have ad blockers installed are experiencing an unusual phenomenon.
What Happened: Users with ad blockers are noticing that their YouTube videos are skipping to the end, even when replayed. Some users also report that trying to skip to a specific part of the video results in endless loading.
This behavior only occurs when the ad blocker is enabled, and everything works normally when it is disabled.
Many users believe that this is a deliberate move by YouTube to discourage the use of ad blockers. However, it is also possible that the issue lies with the ad blockers themselves. Notably, the majority of users experiencing this problem are using AdBlock, with limited reports of the issue occurring without an ad blocker, reported 9To5Google.
A YouTube spokesperson told Benzinga, “Ad blockers violate YouTube's Terms of Service, and we’ve been urging users for some time to support their favorite creators and allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. An unrelated push to improve YouTube’s performance and reliability may be resulting in suboptimal viewing experiences for ad blocker users.”
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Why It Matters: Over the past few months, YouTube has been cracking down on the use of ad blockers. This began with the platform displaying a message asking users to disable their ad blockers. If the prompt was ignored, videos would not play.
In November 2023, YouTube expanded its ad blocker crackdown globally, giving users the option to pay a monthly fee or watch ads. This move led to a record number of ad blocker uninstalls.
Earlier this year in January, it was also reported that ad blockers were causing videos to buffer slowly, leading to accusations against YouTube. However, at the time a company spokesperson told Benzinga, “Recent reports of users experiencing loading delays on YouTube are unrelated to our ad blocker detection efforts. Our help center offers troubleshooting tips for users experiencing issues.”
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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