YouTube has “launched a global effort” to convince users to enable advertisements or try YouTube Premium, and now the network is expanding its attempts to take down ad blocks.
YouTube communications manager Christopher Lawton told The Verge in a statement that the platform has come to a decision about how to persuade users to accept advertisements.
Although Lawton characterised it as merely a “small experiment globally” at the time, YouTube acknowledged in June that it was blocking content for users who had ad blockers installed. YouTube has now extended this endeavour. More people who have ad blockers installed have reported being unable to watch YouTube videos during the last few weeks; this trend was highlighted in a post by Android Authority.
Lawton adds that “ads support a diverse ecosystem of creators globally and allow billions to access their favourite content on YouTube,” arguing that the “use of ad blockers” is against the platform’s terms of service.
This year, YouTube changed a few things about how adverts work on the site. In May, the business added 30-second, non-skippable advertisements to its TV app. Later, it started experimenting with lengthier, infrequent TV commercial breaks.
