YouTube Cracks Down on Third-Party Ad Blockers by Automatically Skipping Videos to the End: Report

According to reports, YouTube has implemented measures to counter third-party ad blockers by automatically skipping videos to their end.

YouTube has taken further action against third-party ad blockers on its platform, aiming to address the persistent issue. According to a report, users who have ad blockers enabled are encountering a new problem – videos are automatically skipping to the end. This move is an extension of the global crackdown initiated by the video-streaming platform last year on third-party applications and browser plugins that block ads in videos, thereby violating the terms of service of its API services.

A Reddit user by the name of SDHD4K shared a brief video clip on the YouTube subreddit with the caption, "New Youtube adblock weird behaviour - video automatically skips to the end." The clip demonstrates that using an ad blocker causes the video to automatically skip to the end, preventing the user from watching it.

The user reportedly attempted to skip specific sections of the video, but it seems to automatically fast-forward to the end. Additionally, in the same subreddit, numerous users have pointed out another issue – the absence of audio.

One user commented, "And if you get around that skip, the video plays without any audio. You can only hear something when you turn the volume up or down, but as soon as you 'let go' of the volume control, the audio turns silent."

Google's video-streaming platform has been intensifying its efforts to combat ad blockers over the past few months. In May 2023, YouTube introduced 30-second "unskippable ads" for its TV app. This was followed by a "small experiment globally" in June, which encouraged viewers with ad blockers enabled to either allow ads on YouTube or consider YouTube Premium.

Several months later, this initiative evolved into a "global effort" aimed at addressing ad blockers that violate YouTube's terms of service. Christopher Lawton, Communications Manager at YouTube, explained to The Verge that this enforcement is necessary because "ads support a diverse ecosystem of creators globally and allow billions to access their favorite content on YouTube."

While the platform earns revenue from features like Super Chat and channel memberships, its primary source of income still relies on advertisements—something that third-party ad blockers eliminate.