1y ago

YouTube's ‘War’ on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

www.404media.co YouTube's ‘War’ on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

Google's anti-ad scripts are breaking browsers and privacy plugins. It could get worse because Google controls the ad market, Chrome, and the extension store.

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1y ago

YouTube's 'War' on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

www.404media.co /youtubes-war-on-adblockers-shows-how-google-controls-the-internet/

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Technology @lemmy.world

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1y ago

YouTube's ‘War’ on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

www.404media.co /youtubes-war-on-adblockers-shows-how-google-controls-the-internet/

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81 comments

Still having 0 problems on Firefox with just Ublock Origin and adguard. Hopefully it stays that way
- Are you logged in? Cause if not you don't get these popups.
  
  I haven't logged out since they started this push and I don't get them with just Firefox/uBlock. I was getting them for a bit and they even blocked me completely at one point. But I just cleared my uBlock cache and updated and it's been working fine.
  
  Yes I am. I even got the pop-ups for a couple days a week ago, but I just closed the pop ups and resumed the videos with no ads
  
  I got those popups while not even being logged in at some points, but just purging the cache on uBlock filters seems to work.
- Having Ublock Origin doesn't guarantee success, read this: https://lemmy.world/comment/4933251
- Same on OperaGX, zero issues with their Adblock+Ublock Origin.
  
  Opera GX 🤢🤮
  Use a proper browser like Firefox or preferably LibreWolf with a proper adblocker like uBlock Origin. LibreWolf even comes with uBO preinstalled. It also makes many other significant privacy security improvements compared to normal Firefox.
- Also having zero problems here paying for it.
  
  Paying isn't a bad idea if you want to do that.
  Google creeping on your privacy and your right to view HTML the way you choose to is gross and violating.
  These two ideologies don't have much overlap, and definitely can coexist separately.

Honestly, I think it's great: if it annoys people enough, they will move out from Chrome and install Firefox (or one of its forks) with good extensions for blocking ads on YouTube. It seems to be the only solution to break the monopoly of Google on browsers. So go Google, I believe in you!
- Nah, most people are dumb, they will just continue to complain and assume there is nothing they can do.
  
  Yeah but even dumb people when annoyed enough will listen to alternatives. Specially when this one is so damn easy. It's not like editing config files or changing partitions, it's just using another damn browser.
- And maybe more creators start using PeerTube as well...
- It keeps breaking on FF too tho
  
  Nope it doesn't. Mine works without any modifications but I heard that it happens occasionally. There are some easy steps to set up FF to work again, should be easy to look up.

The irony of this post being behind a paywall
- This is a dumb take. Being behind a paywall means it's not controlled by Google and its ad network.
  Are these webpages and people just supposed to work for free?
  
  Is hosting YouTube infrastructure free?
  
  404 media in particular do great work. They're all defectors from Motherboard (vice) and I think supporting them is both worthwhile and worth it.

No pop-ups on NewPipe x Sponsorblock.
- ublock origin works
- NewPipe is a third party app, hence you don't get any popups. Doesn't mean YT can't do anything to stop you tho
  
  Could they really do anything though? Newpipe directly scrapes the content, after all
- My only issue with it is that it's slightly outdated, so I run BraveNewPipe: https://github.com/bravenewpipe/NewPipe/tree/v0.25.2-2.1.4
  (It implements the same features while also adding support for some extra platforms)

It made me switch to Freetube

- I'll add that ReVanced and FireFox + UBlock are working fine for me still, still need to install STN tho
  I even recently dropped my Premium sub (when they ditched Pixel Pass) so I was kinda expecting retaliation for bailing on em but nothing so far
- Is revanced annoying to build? I've been putting it off for that reason since AFAIK there is no manager for it
  
  https://github dot com/ReVanced/revanced-manager
  
  It's easy enough. You'll need to grab an apk for YouTube so ReVanced Manager can modify and install it. That's about it.
  
  There's a better one than revanced, it's called grayjay

So far a Firefox workaround seems to be copying the URL into a fresh private browser window.
It may not be enough to matter, but a not-insignificant number of users will simply abandon YouTube if this keeps up.
- You can just purge the cache in uBlock Origin and update the filterlists, that will fix the issue too.
  
  Having Ublock Origin doesn't guarantee success, read this: https://lemmy.world/comment/4933251
- Allready done. 😃 Some puts a YouTube link, I just scroll past. Can't be that important if it's on boobtube
  
  Is…is boobtube a thing?
  It sounds like it should be a thing
  
  ROFL! I haven’t heard boobtube since the 70s! 😂
- a not-insignificant number of users will simply abandon YouTube if this keeps up.
  I regetfully disagree. I think very few people will leave the platform and that the additional revenue generated from those that use adblockers but allow YouTube ads will easily cover the difference of those that do.
  I don't say this to discourage boycotting. Fuck google, do it if you want to!

- Or just use uBlock Origin? It blocks YouTube's ads (and their adblocker-blockers) right out of the gate. It's also available on Firefox for Android.
  
  For the moment, Youtube is managing to push ads onto me despite uBO.

FreeTube works fantastic on desktop. No ads and instant playback and high quality. Amazing app.
- I second this, I use freetube and I love it

Piped.video (on Firefox) works fine for me
- Piped is so slow for me, I'm not sure if it's a me issue or a host issue. I finally spun up viewtube to test it out since running my own piped instance seemed cumbersome.
  
  Same here. I tried loading the same 13-second video on Piped and YouTube. YouTube played it instantly. Piped took several seconds (probably longer than the video lasted) to start playing.
- Yeah it works file for 720/1080p and no captions.

@JRepin, best combination is uBO + this one
https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/477725-youtube-iframe-adblocker

81 comments