YouTube begins new wave of slowdowns for users with ad blockers enabled

YouTube recently started slowing down its entire site whenever ad blockers are used. A new wave of slowdowns is hitting users, with the only resolutions being disabling the ad blocker or upgrading to premium.

Update 1/16: In a new statement, YouTube says that these latest slowdowns are not its own doing, and a bug with AdBlock has also been highlighted as the likely cause.

To combat the increasing frequency of ads on YouTube, people have employed the use of ad blockers for years. According to YouTube, that method of avoiding ads is deemed a violation of the terms of service. Of course, pre-video ads are a huge source of income for the service, and the only way to avoid them without the use of a third-party application is to pay YouTube directly for premium.

YouTube has since started discouraging the use of ad blockers in a couple of ways. The first is with a pop-up message that reads, “Ad blockers violate YouTube’s Term of Service.” The message then suggests you turn off your ad blocker. The user is not allowed to continue watching without doing so.

The second method is one that’s now starting to roll out to more users. YouTube has recently started slowing the entire site when an ad blocker is being used, referring to it as “suboptimal viewing.”

According to a post on Reddit, multiple users have noted that YouTube has become laggy and unresponsive, seemingly all of a sudden. It was quickly discovered that disabling whichever ad blocker is being used immediately revitalizes the site.

We tested this theory ourselves, and sure enough, YouTube looks sickly whenever an ad blocker is enabled. Videos buffer incredibly slow, previews refuse to load properly, and entering theater mode or fullscreen is impossible without refreshing the website.

This is mostly due to an artificial timeout written within YouTube’s code to act as a laggy internet connection. While this action taken by YouTube isn’t brand-new, more users are starting to see the tactic in use.

If you’re experiencing this issue, you have two official options that have already been covered: disable the ad blocker or upgrade to YouTube Premium.

For most users, neither option is ideal, and YouTube’s methods of dissuading users from using ad blockers are controversial. It forces viewers to choose between paying $10/month or sitting through what can sometimes be up to 10 minutes of unskippable video ads.