YouTube announced its ramped-up efforts to tackle third-party apps that violate its Terms of Service, focusing on ad-blocking applications. This announcement comes after a year when the platform urged users to switch to YouTube Premium or to allow ads while watching videos.
Viewers using these third-party apps to view YouTube may face some issues, including buffering issues and the display of error messages such as ‘The following content is not available on this app’ when attempting to watch videos.
YouTube enforces certain policies to support creators and ensure they receive fair compensation for their content. The company believes that ad revenues are crucial in sustaining creators’ work and providing users worldwide with access to its streaming services.
“We only allow third-party apps to use our API when they follow our API Services Terms of Service, and when we find an app that violates these terms, we will take appropriate action to protect our platform, creators, and viewers,” YouTube announced.
This means that after targeting ad-blocker extensions and interrupting videos on computers, YouTube is now going for mobile by focusing on apps like AdGuard that let users open YouTube within the app, thereby blocking ads.
“We want to emphasize that our terms don’t allow third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership. Ads on YouTube help support creators and let billions of people worldwide use the streaming service,” the platform asserted.
To avoid this problem, YouTube is again requesting its users to subscribe to YouTube Premium services, which allows for an ad-free experience or to watch 15- —to 30-second ads. This news may disappoint some users who decided not to opt for the Premium version.
However, it is important to note that YouTube has been slowly but surely disabling ad blockers. Sooner or later, users must choose between watching ads or opting for the Premium version.
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