YouTube Reportedly Punishing Users for Having Ad Blockers

By Cade Onder

YouTube is reportedly going to be punishing users who use ad blockers. YouTube is one of the most dominant websites on the internet. It is filled with countless hours of content and has launched the careers of numerous creators. With that said, YouTube generates a lot of money both for itself and for creators. The way it does this is because YouTube is a very lucrative advertising space. Not only are there clickable ads all over the page, but the most prominent one are ads that play before and sometimes during a video. Some of these are skippable, some of these are not, but nevertheless, it's like watching regular TV with commercial breaks.

Some people hate these pesky ads and have installed ad blockers into their browsers, allowing them to not ever see ads if they don't want to. This has been a thing for years now and yet, YouTube is only just now starting to do something about it, it seems. As reported by Dexerto, YouTube is now able to detect who is using an ad blocker and is punishing those who use them. A notice was given to a user using one of these ad blockers that says video playback will be blocked after three videos if they continue to use the ad blocker. The notice also informs users the benefits of ads on YouTube, but also informs them that they can pay for a subscription service that removes ads from the platform while still supporting it.

It's hard to say how much money YouTube has lost out on from having users with ad blockers. It's obviously fairly niche relative to how many people actually use YouTube, especially when native apps on things like gaming consoles and smart TVs don't have the ability to use ad blockers. However, on computers and some phones, it is something that can directly impact YouTube. Given its owned by Google, the impact is likely fairly miniscule, but it's hard to say for certain.

What do you think of YouTube blocking ad blockers? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

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