Remember back in May, when YouTube was seen blocking ad blockers, which the streaming service claims was an experiment? Then a month later that evolved to a three-strikes system? It looks like the first version is starting to affect some local users.
Lowyat Forum user going by the handle Archer13 has shared a screenshot showing the popup window that we first saw shared by Redditor Sazk100. Also shared was the fact that they could still close the window and continue watching as usual and, further down in the thread, that they were using the Brave browser with uBlock Origin.
We tried using different combinations of browsers and ad blockers to replicate this to no avail. This includes using the same Brave browser and uBlock Origin combination. As when this first showed up in May, this looks to be hitting users at random, which suggests that YouTube is extending its experiment to more regions.
As we mentioned in prior reports, YouTube is heavily incentivised to discourage the use of ad blockers, as it relies on either advertising or Premium subscriptions. Though we are only seeing one variant of this blocking of ad blockers, it wouldn’t be surprising if the other one makes an appearance soon. At the same time, it remains to be seen if this will remain an experiment affecting users randomly, or will it be rolled out to everyone in time.
(Source: Lowyat Forum)
