Users Reporting Deliberate Delay in YouTube Video Playback, Here’s Why

A few days ago, Hacker News and Reddit users started complaining about video delays on YouTube on Mozilla’s Firefox for those who use ad blockers to get rid of ads flooded on the platform. YouTue addressed the recent development, stating that it is not a browser-related issue, but rather an attempt by YouTube to thwart ad blocker users, as ads are a “lifeline for content creators.

People started seeing a five-second delay watching YouTube videos on Firefox. However, it was later discovered that the delay was also introduced in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge for users attempting to skip ads using ad blockers such as AdBlock or uBlock Origin. Christopher Lawton, YouTube’s communications manager, said in an email that disabling the browser’s ad blockers would resolve the problem quickly, but it might be necessary to refresh the browser.

YouTube has attempted to thwart ad blockers in its system using various methods, including directing users to subscribe to YouTube Premium at $13.99/month or watch ads. For anyone who wants to skip ads using the countless ad blockers available, YouTube has started testing a prompt warning users to turn off their ad blockers or they will no longer be able to watch YouTube videos temporarily.

Although anti-ad blocking measures are currently limited to a subset of users, they will be rolled out across the entire platform to thwart ad blockers. Additionally, Lawton says users will continue to see these issues (delays in video playback or warning prompts to turn off the ad blocker) as YouTube’s ad blocker detection methods improve.

Google is undergoing drastic changes in terms and one of the major blows will be to popular ad blocking extensions such as uBlock Origin.

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