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

[Male Idiot]

Saaar you must watch ad saaaaaaar!

Youtube is ran by pajeets.

 

[jalopy]

Newpipe developer on the open issue:

 

[Spud]

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

What's funny is the money from you watching those ads actually goes to Google as the ads are served via their ad programs they use through Youtube rather than to YouTube directly.

 

[Trombonista]

I would happily stop using an adblocker on YouTube if there were fewer and shorter ads to endure. Two ads before and after a video is ridiculous. Getting an ad that unskipped is longer than the video I'm about to watch is ridiculous. Tone down the ads and the problem is solved.

 

[Akerman]

No problems yet on my end, I use ublock and chromium with a VPN set to a country in Eastern Europe that usually don't get ads if my blocker fails on some websites.

People are allowed to look away from the ads & mute them, so they should be allowed to block them too if they want, but I might personally watch the ads if they make them shorter (0:20 seconds or less), police how loud they are allowed to be (make them more quiet), no midrolls interrupting the video I am watching unless the creator has set them deliberately with a break in so it flows seamlessly, no degeneracy/nudity even for a "joke", no ads promoting divisive & retarded idpol of any political direction, and if they stop allowing disguised slot machines called "mobile games" to advertise their slop on their platform. That includes any other ads for addictive bullshit with a lot of carbs in it for that matter.

None of this will happen, of course because they don't actually give a fuck. And in that case I will continue not giving a fuck as well and block the ads until I can't, then download the videos and if that stops working I will just do something else with my time.

Fuck ads, there is nothing normal or justified about subliminal bullshit that has literally been socially engineered through extensive research to manipulate you into making bad choices, often by playing on and/or developing your insecurities, and exploiting your culture and values.

 

[Absurdist Laughter]

so, if youtube is kill what are viable options? odysee? rumble?

This is why I think it is unrealistic for me to think I'll stop watching YouTube completely. The alternatives like rumble and odysee are just full of American Right biased content. If I'm looking for a tutorial on how to build a game environment in Unreal Engine 5 I'm not going to rumble or odysee first. The YouTube alternatives, heck even Truth Social, carved their markets out of a small minority of a small minority and then trapped themselves with walls that fort knox would blush at. As much as I hate monoculture ecosystems I am hoping X can at least cut into YouTube's watch time. Though I don't know how X would integrate a YouTube style of platform into X without building something new from the ground up. I'm getting really tired of the top 5 SP500 companies controlling our lives. An exception extended to Apple as they seem to actually still have an ethical code.

 

[Falcon Sebben]

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'd stop watching as ads annoy the everloving hell out of me. It's one of the reasons I can't watch commercial TV anymore.

In any case regardless of how well Google implements this there will always be somebody somewhere who's figured out a way to get around it and usually within no time at all.

 

[Pargon]

An exception extended to Apple as they seem to actually still have an ethical code.

Are you kidding? They’ve been at the front of the fight against right to repair/modify for years.

 

[We Are The Witches]

You'll have to catch me dead before I pay for something like YouTube Premium.

If there's no solution, I'll watch less frequently and be way more selective with the content I deem as worth checking out if I have to wait for an ad to end, but regardless, I will not be listening nor paying attention to the ad.

If for some reason I become aware of the product that's being advertised, I'll be way more critical with it or outright not buy it if the opportunity presents, so nice marketing there.

 

[Ghost of Biden]

Google is literally setting themselves up for failure with this shit. I quit using their APIs because my tool chain was always fucking broken. Focus on improving your own product instead of cutting the knees out from other competitors you government trust faggots, almost every time I open YouTube after a new update gets pushed to the main branch something always breaks because these fucks don’t user test before release.

 

[Absurdist Laughter]

Are you kidding? They’ve been at the front of the fight against right to repair/modify for years.

I don't care about that, I care about user privacy. If you don't like their policy on right to repair, don't buy the product.

 

[The Tall Man]

it is unrealistic for me to think I'll stop watching YouTube completely

I'm getting really tired of the top 5 SP500 companies controlling our lives.

Obviously not tired enough.
SUFFAH ABSURDIST LAUGHTER, SUFFAH ! ! !

 

[TheShedCollector]

The war on adblockers is an unwinnable war. Google has finite resources. There are only so many people employed to try and block the adblockers. For every $100,000 engineer that Google assigns to the task, there are 100,000 engineers who fucking hate adverts and who want to beat whatever systems Google puts in place, just for the fun of it.
It's a pointless task and the adverts will be blocked again within a couple of days.

 

[Sam Losco's Wife]

This isn't feature worthy.

 

[Dafuqisdis?]

I'm not having any problems I use a plugin with Brave to block youtube ads.

 

[TooManyKittens]

U

I would happily stop using an adblocker on YouTube if there were fewer and shorter ads to endure. Two ads before and after a video is ridiculous. Getting an ad that unskipped is longer than the video I'm about to watch is ridiculous. Tone down the ads and the problem is solved.

Uniromically this. And it goes the same for most of the web. When ads were a banner bar at the bottom or side, and just images/links no fancy js/popups/overlays i was happy to let websites have their pittance in trade for content. I didn't use it on YouTube or switch to alts until the ads became obnoxious. An ad at the start or end every couple of videos? Eh fine. Multiple long ads per video sometimes more ad than content? Fuck off.

Every once in a while ill have a new browser install and forget the ad blocker and instantly get hit by how unusable most of the web is without one. News sites, otherwise reputable retailers, decent tech references, the whole lot. Its chock full of ads enough that you can't get to the content itself.

They've done it to themselves. It doesn't help that 90% of ads are for *actual* scams or at best out of country drop ships, and click bait to..show you more ads for more click bait? Idk. I dont see how this nets in valuable advertisement views or clicks that anyone will hit. At this point if I somehow see online ads for your company, its an instant *negative* impression of you. It might not land you on the boycott list immediately but it absolutely does not make me more inclined to get anything.

Truth be told these days in depth head to head multiple reviews by *small time* creators or recommendations by people i know irl who own the thing etc are infinitely more valuable to me. The big content creators with a few exceptions are so posted i don't trust them, and all those paid to play listicle best of articles are a dumpster fire of dumb.

TOTAL MARKETER DEATH

Seriously, fire all the marketing teams.

 

[Pargon]

I don't care about that, I care about user privacy. If you don't like their policy on right to repair, don't buy the product.

Friend, I don’t know what security and privacy concerns you think aren’t present when you have to send your device across country or continent to bring it back to operational capacity but that’s not the topic of the thread so I’ll let it drop.

But you need to read more.

 

[Necrosan]

This isn't feature worthy.

It's the canary in the coalmines. Let me remind you that this is what they are aiming for with their ads:


I always recommend people to save whatever videos they like or find useful somewhere because I guaran-fucking-tee you that if they were able to pull out two pliers from your computer, stick them in your eyelids and force them to watch their ad, they would. Never underestimate what these people will do for a buck.

 

[chicken nugget]

Latest update for SmartTube seems to be working for me.

As side note, on my Samsung TV, I use a lesser known app called TizenTube and it seemed entirely unaffected by this issue. I suspect because it's more of a mod to the official YouTube app than a stand alone app itself. It's not as feature rich as SmartTube but it does adblocking perfectly well and also includes SponsorBlock. Installing it isn't as simple as SmartTube is on AndroidTV but it's not that difficult: https://github.com/reisxd/TizenTube

 

[Osama Bin Laden]

I'm in the same camp as alot of people who have simply had enough. It is actually in an advertiser's best interest that I don't see their ad. I have a blacklist of companies that I will never consider. I will actively seek their competition or some mom and pop that is comparable. (If you have millions and billions of dollars to scream in my ear, multiple times per hour, about how great your new ballshaver or whatever is, you don't need my money)

That Said if you are an android user looking for a mobile solution. "Adblock Browser" app has never let me down. No idea if it exists on apple's market.

I also use "Adguard" for my main pcs that seems to have killed everything, its a paid for service, only got it because nothing else was working for a week or two during the initial anti-adblock war started up again but I'd give my money to any company fighting against advertisers 1000 times over before I would watch an ad willingly.

As I see it, if my viewing an ad has value to companies, and I am not being compensated for the time I am watching their shit, they are stealing from me. (I don't care if its $0.00001 cents a view, pay me or get your ad off my FUCKING screen)

ETA: Sponsorblock is a godsend and if you don't have it, you need it. Skips all the stupid in-video ad segments for "gay faggot legends" and such