Did YouTube finally kill adblocking apps like SmartTube? - Tons of unusual 403 / forbidden errors

[Bunny Tracks]

uBlock Origin is still working, although it might've slowed down briefly last night when this escalation first happened.

For what it's worth, there's a surprisingly good chance Congress could actually step in, and shut this shit down since they've done something similar in the past. Remember how commercials used to be a lot louder on TV in comparison to actual programs? Congress actually passed a law prohibiting that, at least on television. It was a unanimous decision, too.

The same law is now currently in the process of getting an updated version that would also cover streaming. It's not too much of a stretch to believe that they could also include the prohibition of retaliatory actions against adblocks in it, or draft a new one doing so.

Never forget that nobody, not even the scumfucks in Congress, likes ads, and doing shit like this has been proven to be one of the very, very few ways to get them off their lazy asses, unite, and actually do something.

 

[The Feline Solution]

Yeah I will NOT re-enable the YT app on my TV

It's the absolute fucking worst. I hardly use YT as it is but how the TV app handles recommendations, which seems to be different than on mobile and desktop, makes the YT "experience" so shit that the last times i bothered with it i turned it off in annoyance after five minutes. No shit, the ads on the TV app are less of an annoyance than the slop YT wants me too watch, the amount of time i spent with pressing "Do not recommend" and it still giving me the same kind of shit is ridiculous.

 

[GilaCutter]

I wonder if this is why some of the video resolution options have disappeared. I've noticed I can't watch anything in 480p anymore.

 

[AnimeGirlConnoisseur]

YouTube is fighting a losing war against ad blockers. The amount of extra money they would make is not worth the effort. Ad block users are a minority on YouTube.

But isn't Youtube a loss leader? Are you sure this is about money and not control?

 

[Anime Genocide]

If YouTube finally kills the third-party adblocking applications, will you stop watching or will you be a fucking scab and pay for YouTube premium?

I would definitely stop watching.

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

And people wonder why I pirate absolutely everything for $10 a month I can buy even more storage devices
I mean if it was an extremely loud I'd buy my own server and set it up in my house

This might be true for half of the Google employees but the other half are super autistic trannies with the best programming socks money can buy.

There's only three types of good code monkeys transgenders actual far right weirdos or libertarians everyone else there is not actually doing work

 

[Vibralldo]

But isn't Youtube a loss leader? Are you sure this is about money and not control?

It isn't a coincidence that suddenly every major company is increasing subscription prices and filling in loopholes (Netflix getting rid of password sharing )

I think the economy is so fucked right now that Google can't afford YouTube to be a loss leader anymore.

 

[AnsemSoD1]

Fuck the kikes, but my adblocker still seems to be working fine.

 

[The Repeated Meme]

YouTube Revanced doesn't seem to be affected.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

this ain't new, Google has been directly and explicitly trying to kill Invidious for years now. they even have an algo to automatically detect and block suspected Invidious instances from downloading videos. since this is a losing battle, I expect at some point they'll take one of their nuclear options and do something like neuter their API entirely or paywall the majority of content on the platform or something like that. Google has all the cards, the only reason there's a counteroffensive at all is because Google is indirectly allowing it by attempting to maintain a usable API. if they shut that shit down tomorrow, everybody would be fucked, and they'd still have infinite money. thankfully, 99.99% of the content on YouTube is garbage for idiots anyway. the only thing I consistently use it for these days is linking music to my friends on cursed chat apps where I can't just send them the MP3 directly.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

But isn't Youtube a loss leader? Are you sure this is about money and not control?

The more you clench a handful of sand, the more grains of sand you will lose. YouTube's budget is in the billions and if I recall from one of my classmates, they would only earn an extra 32 million dollars from disabling all forms of adblockers.

 

[Kazukifaen]

My ad blockers still works. On Firefox /Brave

If Google manages to kill ad blockers, what's it for me, I go somewhere else

Why should I give a trillion dollar corpo any money.

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

Its not like I watch anything on youtube proper anyways, whatever I watch is demonetized and on Brave with Ublock.

 

[Amateur Shoelace Tyer]

What I don't understand is why ads are so valuable. I have never seen a YouTube ad for a product or a service I would give any amount of money to. Who is buying what these scummy companies are selling on YouTube and are they really buying enough to justify selling the ads with such fervor? Seriously, has anybody here purchased something from a YouTube, banner, or pop-up ad? Is it boomers?

 

[Max Free]

If YouTube finally kills the third-party adblocking applications, will you stop watching or will you be a fucking scab and pay for YouTube premium?

No.
YouTubes sharp decline in quality makes it the equivalent of 2000-era FreeTV, which I don't watch anymore, too. If I become too bored, I may just actually do something productive instead. Or read a book.
I recommend people to download and store their favorite media from the Internet since a while now, as it becomes more prone to delete, censor or poison content. Sadly, even to this day, the meme "The internet never forgets" prevails.

 

[Party Hat Wurmple]

It's not about the money, it's about the message. Silicon Valley wants to control every thought you have because they view themselves as superior humans. Every FAGMAN employee belongs in a gas chamber.

It's even less than that. YouTube has bad numbers and the economy caused them some crunch. They have to pump up those numbers by making a Boogeyman and doing bare minimum to fight against it. It's not that ad blockers are the problem, it's just desperate people who have nothing to do trying to keep their jobs.

 

[Dyn]

I already watch the ads it's only fair that YouTube get compensated for providing us all with so much free entertainment.

 

[grapeshark77]

One argument that the pro-Youtube ad people (they exist on Reddit, no surprise) use is that Youtube wants the ad-blocker people to stop watching, because you're just wasting their time. They forget about that if people stop watching, the actual creators will get less views and less money. There's plenty of people who don't use blockers that gave up because the ads are so aggressive.

Mine still works but if it ever stops I'll just go to one of the 10,000 other places online that has videos to watch. It's funny how ad-supported streamers like Tubi/Amazon have normal ad breaks but Youtube needs to dump all this garbage on you.

It's pretty annoying to get ads, have a ad IN the video from the creator, and then end it by them asking you to give them Patreon money.

 

[FamicomGorby]

I absolutely fuckin refuse to watch youtube ads. They fucked around so much and I remember what really drove me off of em was when they started allowing ads that were like two or three hours long. So I'd put youtube on my phone while I was doing something and the occasional ad was fine. Until one time the ad that pops up is basically an entire movie if you don't hit skip. I couldn't hit skip immediately cause I was in the middle of fuckin doing something, so I had to listen to some propaganda ad droning on until I could finally fucking shut it off.

Basically, fuck em.

 

[Party Hat Wurmple]

What I don't understand is why ads are so valuable. I have never seen a YouTube ad for a product or a service I would give any amount of money to. Who is buying what these scummy companies are selling on YouTube and are they really buying enough to justify selling the ads with such fervor? Seriously, has anybody here purchased something from a YouTube, banner, or pop-up ad? Is it boomers?

They don't. That's the problem. Companies like YouTube are built on house of cards. Their ads are wicked expensive and they need to fake conversion rates to keep the grift going. Marketing is a grift. YouTube ads cost more than the 10% of conversion you maybe get. It's all smoke and mirrors.