YouTube is once again ramping up its war against adblockers by making its platform essentially unusable for viewers who don’t pay for Premium.
The world’s most popular video platform has been taking extreme measures to ensure that viewers are unable to bypass its ads.
Earlier in June, the Google-owned site banned multiple adblockers, and at the same time, confirmed that Premium Lite subscribers would be getting ads when they watch Shorts.
Although some users found adblock or browser combos to continue watching YouTube ad-free, the app has since fired back by slowing videos to a crawl for viewers with adblockers installed.
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YouTube punishes viewers for using adblockers
In posts across social media, users posted screenshots of YouTube throttling their videos and making the website unusable.
“They’re slowing down performance if you use an adblocker,” one wrote and shared an image of YouTube “experiencing interruptions.”
“Been using Brave to block YouTube ads and it’s technically working, but most videos will be black screen for the length of an ad or two with YouTube saying ‘experiencing interruptions’ on the bottom left corner, and one of the possible reasons being ad blockers from what it is saying,” another wrote on the Brave browser forums.
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According to Telegrafi, analysis has shown that YouTube is using the JavaScript setTimeout function and adding a five-second delay before content loads.
“This slowdown affects not only playback, but also other functionalities – commenting, uploading new videos, and basic site options,” they say.
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Meanwhile, PCWorld reports that ad-block extension developers have found a way to get around some of YouTube’s slowdown tricks, with an AdGuard representative calling the situation “a classic cat-and-mouse game.”
In 2024, YouTube ads earned the company $36B and the site appears to be aiming to eclipse that total in 2025 with the Google-owned platform testing even longer unskippable ads and using AI to insert ads during moments where viewer engagement is at its highest.
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