Youtube’s Anti-adblock and uBlock Origin

uBO team (2 people) should not be responding to questions on reddit or elsewhere. They should just update the filters and post a "extension updated, should work again now".

In the end, Youtube will win if they want to win. Google can throw unconscionable amounts of money at their techs to fight the adblockers while the volunteers spend their attention and patience.

Some solutions:

• Android
  • LibreTube
  • NewPipe
    • NewPipe x SponsorBlock
    • BraveNewPipe
  • Grayjay
• iOS
  • Yattee with this guide
  • (Adding Piped/Invidious website to Homescreen)
• Web
  • Piped
  • Invidious
  • ViewTube
  • (Tubo)
• Desktop
  • FreeTube
  • (Using any of the web solutions as PWAs)
• TV
  • Android TV
    • SmartTubeNext
  • Apple TV
    • Yattee with this guide

if theres one thing im determined to do, its to never voluntarily see a youtube ad ever. praise ublock and revanced.

Then there are non-tech-savvy users looking at the post and saying, “This is too complex. I give up.”

This is YouTube's ultimate goal. They don't need to make it impossible to block ads, just more trouble than it's worth for most people.

But the hurtful comments leave a bigger mark than the good ones

As a volunteer for a charity, I feel this so much. I work incredibly hard to help people, I get paid nothing for my time. The entitlement and rude demands burns me out way faster. Especially when people seem to put far more effort into complaining and being rude than they do thanking me or showing appreciation for what we do.

Here is my experience with it.

Up until last week I've had friends (who also use uBlock Origin, same country) kind of sequentially complaining for about a month about having the videos blocked. For me personally it has been working fine until then, but Friday I got the popup. Today the popup is gone however I get ads but they don't play video, only sound.

YouTube isn’t rolling out the anti-adblock to everyone. It seems to depend on things like your account, browser, and IP address. And if you’re not logged in or you’re in a private window, you’re safe. As a result, there are a bunch of people saying, “I use XYZ and I haven’t seen an anti-adblock popup yet,” unknowingly spreading misinformation.

What I see with this is that Google might eventually lose more with this new policies than just leaving things as they were. Lets be real, if this shit show continues and they don't drop it as it becomes increasingly difficult to watch without ads people will start looking for alternative frontends such as Piped or Invidious and that will hinder their ability to harvest data and force ads. What's the next step Google? DRM protected media?

This was really interesting. I’ve been looking for a slightly more technical explanation for how this arms race works under the hood.

I wasn't able to get it consistently working so I started using FreeTube instead of a browser, which seems to work without hassle

Nothing like watching everyone freak out while I'm just using invidious

I've moved on from trying to block the ads to using a front-end and a macro to do the annoying part for me. It's been nice. I hadn't realized how bad youtube's UI was until seeing a clean one. I definitely recommend using one of the less notable ones, they seem to be faster.

So today, YouTube's pop-ups rolled down to Views will be limited to one unless you remove your adblocker at which point the pop-ups ceased. (I was intentionally rolling them down). Have: Firefox, DDG Privacy Essentials, NoScript, uBlock Origin

Techs working to give me access: I love you guys! I really appreciate what you're doing.

Fuck the hurtful comments, and do it to fight capitalism and enshittification.

That said, when I can no longer YouTube without ads, I will no longer YouTube, which also means no engagement on video forums. Useful, interesting rants is what I have to offer.

Mine are super inconsistent now. Obviously I have uBO, but I can typically watch like 10-ish videos a day before the popups start, at which point I just turn on libredirect.

Has anybody else not seen an ad yet? I'm wondering if it's because I'm using Enhancer for youtube which also has an adblocking function 🤔

does this affect the ip range blockers. I thought about getting one of those, but youtube will probably find a way to cook ads into regular content, but we have AI now.....

We need an economic system change. We should go beyond the data economy and find new sustainable ways to develop software and platforms and social networks. uBO won't win alone vs Google, unless they stop challenging it over technology

Only so far, false positives scare potential customers away.

When the time comes that YouTube wins. It is also the time they loose. Personally i wouldnt use Youtube at all without adblock.

Permanently Deleted

heh, youtube could do some fake accounts and spam them with help requests

uBlock Origin Lite works just fine.

EDIT: as I wrote here, I am quite confident that my YT account has already been “rolled out” because of the many ads in the last 5–7 days. Before, I had 1 or 2 before some videos; now there are also pop-ups. I have made some experiments with VPNs (Mullvad) and browsers in several fresh VMs. uBOL works differently than the standard uBO and, from what I’ve seen, it seems to work fine. I’ll just stop repeating that.

STOP BLOCKING SPONSORS. LET THE SMALL CREATOR EARN THE LITTLE THAT THEY DO FROM AD REVENUE YOU THIEVES. FUCK THE PIRATES WITH A FLAMETHROWER UP THE ASS.