YouTube, Adblocking, And A Recommendation
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Nov 1, 2023
This isn’t usually the kind of topic I’d write about on this particular blog. However, as I haven’t written anything here in the longest time, and I have a blog related subject upcoming on the blog I’d usually post stuff like this one, I thought it was time to freshen things up a bit and start moving some traffic around here. 🙂

Back around June, YouTube started testing a message on their site telling particular users that they were using adblockers and it was a violation of the terms of service to watch videos on the site. Initially there wasn’t anything more, and because it was a test many people didn’t see it.
I use adblockers on both Firefox and Chrome across the board, though I use Firefox the most. I have other things I can use to eliminate other things I don’t want to deal with; that’s just how I roll. There’s lots of stuff I don’t want to see; I have a passionate hate for popups and other stuff that intrudes my online life, and if I’m visiting a page I’m never going back to, or one I visit irregularly, I don’t want to be bothered; am I alone here?
Getting back to YouTube, I wasn’t getting any YouTube messages, so I thought that maybe the adblocker I was using was exempt. That lasted until early October, when I started seeing the initial warning message. There was one before the image I’m sharing here, saying you could only watch 3 videos before you were being blocked.
I was irked because I hate ads being forced on me, so I basically ignored it, watching only 2 videos at a time, then leaving and going back later on. Within 10 days or so I was getting the message you see above, and I knew it was getting serious; those weasels! lol
To be fair, they do have a good point. Except for the paid services, almost everything else is free, and there’s a lot of great content out there that most of us who visit have been watching without paying for anything. Some of the people creating videos on YouTube (like yours truly) do it as a living, and even though some of them make thousands of dollars, many of the rest aren’t making the same kind of money, and if they don’t make money then they stop creating, and… well… you know.
The first thing I did was go to my adblocker add-on and whitelisted YouTube. I thought that would take care of everything, but I still got a warning message. They had something added that said to send them a message if you’re not using an adblocker, so I left a message saying I was using an adblocker but I’d whitelisted YouTube, and that should have taken care of everything.
A few days later I got the message above, and I wondered what the issue could be since they were listed. Then I realized I have another add-on I use that lets me change some of the settings and visuals on the YouTube channel that suits my visual sensibilities, and decided to check that out… and I’d set up adblocking YouTube there as well without thinking about it.
Still, I hadn’t thought about that being a problem because I also access YouTube on Chrome, which is owned by Google, who also owns YouTube, and I have the same add-on there, so I didn’t think about it until I got the first warning message via Chrome… and it was the warning above, which means they’d stopped playing. lol
I decided I’d do kind of a workaround. I whitelisted everything so I wouldn’t be bothered by YouTube warnings; what I also decided to do was hit the mute button on my desktop keyboard so I wouldn’t have to hear any ads that immediately started after I clicked on something I wanted to watch. It’s irksome, but at least I still felt like I had some kind of control.
With that said… I mentioned a recommendation. It turns out that there are some browsers out there that block ads automatically from all websites. It’s built into their system, which means it’s not like typical adblockers. I’ve been using Brave as a browser on both my smartphone and my desktop because of its blocking capability, especially when I want to read a news story and that stupid popup comes and won’t let you read anything unless you subscribe to it. By using Brave, it blocks around 98% of those types of things, and all I have to do is select the private window option, and everything’s blocked except the content… which included YouTube.
So, there’s an option and recommendation for you to try out if you’re so inclined. There’s nothing saying Google won’t ever figure it out, but for the time being, if you don’t want to resort to what I’m doing now on Firefox and Google, you have something else to try out; you’re welcome! 🙂
By the way Brave isn’t the only browser that will block stuff for you, but it’s the only one I’ve ever trusted and it’s worked great for me over the years. If you decide you want to check out other browsers, I’d recommend you use DuckDuckGo as your search engine of choice; why give Google the opportunity to track you so they can find all the other browsers out there and start picking them? 😉
Interesting. I think Google wouldn’t even have the little “Not using an adblocker?” link at the bottom if they didn’t know their detection algorithm was buggier than a couch in a Floridian’s apartment.
LOL! I like that comparison. Truth be told, my conspiracy theory is that they used AI to be their hunting dog because of how fast everything’s moved along. If I was in the mood, I’d switch my access to YouTube to Brave and move on with life, but I’ve been a fan and major user of Firefox since it came along and I’m not in the mood to give it up just yet.
I think I had the double-whammy; I’d only NOTICED it in Ghostery, and I’d whitelisted YouTube (and told them so) but I think there was a browser-level block, too, or something). At any rate, I’ve stopped getting their annoying pop-up warning. For now.
You know, about the only times I even go to YouTube, anymore, are for your videos and one long coffee-shop sound loop I enjoy using when I’m writing. (A few people have mentioned that YouTube is inserting ads into that that interrupt the video, and the creator of it – who is NOT MONETIZING – has apologized. I haven’t yet encountered this.) I can understand Google doing it. What I object to is that they’ve taken to doing the “Hey, look at all this free space we’re giving you forever and ever! Give us all your content!” and then they yank the rug out a year or two later and tell you they’re charging now and you’re in danger of running out of space and… Yeah, screw that. There’s the thumb drive.
P.S. re: email addy – only for you, Mitch. Only for you. Just don’t expect me ever to check it. 😉
First, I didn’t notice until today that I actually got another comment from you; I almost had a heart attack! lol
Second, I hadn’t heard anything about YouTube going after content creators who aren’t monetized after a certain amount of time. I’ve been there at least 12 years; if it’s true, I could be in trouble at some point. Since I have 2 channels, I’d be in double trouble. Sigh…
Third… I’ll admit that I’m a bit irked at either YouTube of people monetizing their content… at least some of them. There are a few channels I’ve been to where you get two ads before the video that you can’t skip after 5 seconds, then you get an in-ad advertisement… and then it goes back to YouTube ads before the content actually comes… and if the video is longer than 5 minutes you’re going to get another one: ugh! I wonder if YouTube would be irked if I subscribed to my channel while using Brave, knowing that they block all ads. I might have to try it one of these days if it continues getting on my nerves.