YouTube is doubling down its efforts to curb viewers from watching videos on its platform ad-free. Recently spotted by Reddit user Reddit_n_Me is a new pop-up notifying these particular users to deactivate their ad blockers or risk getting blocked by the service instead. More specifically, failing to comply with the request after watching three videos will result in YouTube locking its video player until the user either whitelists the platform, or allows all advertisements to run.
The use of this new “three strikes rule” is confirmed by YouTube itself via a response to BleepingComputer, which it revealed to be yet again a “small experiment” that’s being conducted globally. As you may recall, the platform ran a similar test back in May where it also issued a pop-up warning to targeted users, requesting them to either turn off their ad blockers or subscribe to its Premium service to enjoy an ad-free experience. However, unlike its current iteration, viewers are immediately blocked from watching any videos when the use of such plugins are detected.
“In extreme cases, where viewers continue their use of ad blockers, playback will be temporarily disabled,” the platform told BleepingComputer. “We take disabling playback very seriously, and will only disable playback if viewers ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube.”
As with its previous test, YouTube explained that advertisements allows its service to stay free for billions of users worldwide. Local users have not reported experiencing either versions of these pop-ups just yet, and the platform itself did not share which regions are actually involved in the experiment.
Whether or not it’ll actually become a permanent addition to the platform remains to be seen. However, given that YouTube is hellbent on discouraging users from using ad blockers, it’s very likely that we might see the implementation of either one of pop-ups filling our screens in the near future.
(Source: Reddit / BleepingComputer)
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