In a move that will ruffle some feathers, YouTube has declared war on those pesky third-party apps that let you watch videos without suffering through ads. That’s right, folks – the days of ad-free bliss may soon be coming to an end.
The video-sharing giant dropped the bombshell announcement, revealing plans to crack down on any apps that use YouTube APIs to block advertisements. According to YouTube’s Terms of Service (ToS), these apps are a big no-no and are now squarely in the crosshairs of the Google-owned platform.
Now, why the sudden crackdown? Well, those sneaky ad-blocking apps are robbing YouTube of its ad revenue and putting creators in a tight spot. After all, those ads keep the lights on for your favourite YouTubers and help them continue creating the content you love (or love to hate).
“We want to emphasise that our terms don’t allow third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership,” said a YouTube spokesperson in the announcement. “Ads on YouTube help support creators and let billions of people around the world use the streaming service.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time YouTube has clashed with the ad-blocking brigade. Over the past year, the platform has experimented with various methods to thwart ad blockers, from gentle reminders to outright restrictions on the number of videos users can watch.
Let’s not forget January’s debacle, when Adblock and Adblock Plus users faced performance issues on YouTube. Many speculated that Google was ramping up its anti-ad-blocking measures, only to discover that the real culprit was a bug in the extensions’ engine. Oops!
So, what’s next in the battle between ads and ad blockers? Only time will tell. But for now, it looks like YouTube is standing firm in its quest to keep those ads rolling—whether you like it or not.
