YouTube's anti-adblock rollout has finally arrived for Firefox users

I’m sure many of you are already aware that YouTube has been rolling out anti-adblock detection for Chrome users for a few weeks now.

Today, as a long time Firefox user with the fantastic uBlock Origin extension installed, I got my first anti-adblock popup on the platform. Note that this may not happen to you personally for a while, but it is inevitably coming for everyone.

Thankfully, the fine folks at uBlock Origin have already advised a simple workaround (on Reddit, yuck!) which I will duplicate in a simplified form below for your convenience. I have tested it on Firefox and it is working fine for me (so far).

PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW ALL OF THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THIS POST.

  1. Update uBO to the latest version (1.52.0+) . <== The extension itself, for technical improvements. You do this in your browser.
  2. Remove your custom config / reset to defaults. <== This means removing your custom filters (or disabling My filters) and disabling ALL additional lists you’ve enabled. It might be quicker to make a backup of your config and restore to defaults instead.
  3. Force an update of your Filter Lists. <== This is within the extension. Lists are what determine what’s blocked or not. How to update Filter lists: Click 🛡️ uBO’s icon > the ⚙ Dashboard button > the Filter lists pane > the 🕘 Purge all caches button > the 🔃 Update now button.
  4. Disable all other extensions AND your browser’s built-in blockers. <== No need to uninstall, just disable them. They might interfere with our solutions.

Make sure you follow all 4 points above. If you’re seeing the message, it’s likely due to your custom config (either additional lists or separate filters in My filters).

Restarting your browser afterwards may help too.

Once you’ve gotten rid of the issue on default settings, you can slowly start restoring your config (if you really need it). Do it gradually, to easier find out what was causing the issue in the first place. Once you find the culprit, simply skip it in your config.

If you want to use Enhancer for YouTube*, you have to* disable its adblocking*.*

May the force uBlock Origin be with you!

Update

Just wanted to mention a few things that have been pointed out in the comments:

  • There are quite a few projects that provide an alternative ad-free front end to YouTube. These include Invidious, FreeTube, LibreTube, Newpipe, Revanced, and I’m sure there are several more options I’ve missed. I don’t have any particular preference really but I routinely use NewPipe on my cellphone just because I tried it once and couldn’t be bothered trying all the others.
  • In step 4 listed above, to clarify, afaik you only need to remove adblocker extensions (if you have more than one installed) that might conflict with the uBlock Origin rules and trigger the anti-adblock, not all extensions.
  • If you hate non-stop ads but want to support your favorite content creators then be sure to give them some love on Patreon or whatever alternative options they provide. Creators typically make only a tiny, tiny fraction of what YouTube makes in ad revenue, assuming YouTube doesn’t just outright steal the lot, and it’s a shitty business model that’s ruining the internet. Even if you watch the ads, you’re only supporting YouTube most of the time, not the creators.
Stamets,
@Stamets@startrek.website avatar

Also got the damned pop up a few hours ago myself. Luckily all that it seems to do is cause the pop up. Once I clicked close it would start playing.

YouTube really is trying to generate competition fast as possible with all the nonsense over the past couple years. Sure. Ads a big revenue. But forcing people to watch them will not work. People will leave and go elsewhere or at least break it and use ads anyway.

Draedron,

Thats only step one. Step 2 adds a timer until you can close it. Step 3 completely locks the video. So far ublock filter updates are working though

khorovodoved,

Alternative solution: Since YouTube disabled all ads in Russia, you can just use russian vpn/proxy for the most effective YouTube adblocking possible.

Golther,

Wow! What a great idea! What could be better than routing all your traffic through a Russian VPN provider and probably bypassing sanctions? What could possibly go wrong?

RuthlessCriticism,

Just for the sake of clarity, what exactly do you think will happen?

egonallanon,

Might get drone stoked to protect American interests.

silent_water,
@silent_water@hexbear.net avatar

lol the US security apparatus is bad but it’s not that bad. you might get put on a watchlist though.

MaxPower,

Nice try, Roskomnadzor

potemkinhr,
@potemkinhr@lemmy.ml avatar

This one’s hilarious, but that one’s not gonna work for long as they will axe almost all non-government approved VPNs

Administrator,

Thanks for a solution that nobody will ever use

AOCapitulator,
@AOCapitulator@hexbear.net avatar

Im imagining any russian person who sees this comment just smiling smugly

uriel238,
@uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I got a notice that was closable with an upper-left corner ❎️ after which I couldn’t reproduce the pop-up and watched videos unimpeded.

I’ll continue to report developments.

0039 PST 2023-10-13 ETA So the last two days, I’d get the YouTube warning, close it, and do the purge-update dance on uBlock Origin, and wouldn’t get the pop-up until hours later. Is that because I didn’t do it right, but the pop-up is only set to appear every few hours? Or is it because YouTube keeps fighting, and uBlock Origin keeps updating? I don’t know.

The pop-up warning is not appearing on any of my youtube devices, for which I’ve done no updates (and watch videos from Firefox for Android with uBlock. Note that I’ve turned off other adblockers, but not NoScript. Dunno if that makes a difference.

yata,

The pop ups doesn’t show up if your ublock origin is correctly updated.

Critical_Insight,

I’ve gotten it once per day now 3 days in a row

onichama, (edited )

Thank you for the comprehensible instructions!
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with Edge (yet?).

Ayo who tf uses Edge?

Me, sadly, as it is the only browser installed on my work pc. We can’t install any other programs (working with highly sensitive data).

EDIT: It works now :D

rbn,

If you can run EXE filles on your work PC and you just don’t have administrator rights to install software, you should be able to download a portable version of your favorite browser.

I used portable Firefox, Chrome, Notepad++, Eclipse, Sysinternals stuff and many more without problems that way.

Disclaimer: Althought this probably works technically, it might still violate some company policy.

brax,

I might almost consider watching the ads if they were ever for things I’d want to use/buy in the first place…

sculd,

Thank god we have people working tirelessly to prevent Google’s greed

Critical_Insight,

While I’m thankful for the team at uBlock Origin, I still wouldn’t call it greedy that a company that provides a quite excellent free video streaming platform, would also like to make a little profit from it too or at the very least to cover the expenses.

anothermember,

It’s not the advertising that’s the problem, it’s the tracking and surveillance that comes with it. Until they get rid of that, uBlock Origin is a necessary security measure.

Critical_Insight,

To me it is the advertising that is the problem. Without ads, there’s no need for collecting user data either. Even if it’s non-targeted ads, that would still make the advertisers the customer, not the people watching those videos. This incentivizes them to optimize the platform to please the advertisers, not the users, resulting in a worse service.

I understand why many people feel like the option to have non-targeted ads instead of monthly fee seems tempting, but in my opinion this doesn’t solve the root of the problem, which is the ads-based bussines model. It’s what makes everything go to shit.

Stumblinbear,
@Stumblinbear@pawb.social avatar

Ad based models aren’t great, but the alternative is subscription based. And we know exactly what the internet feels about that. Look at the amount of people here in this thread given that exact choice and refusing to pay

Critical_Insight,

Yeah but those same people are already paying for Spotify, Netflix, Disney+ and so on. I’m not some bussines genious, so I’m obviously talking out of my ass, but I’d imagine if YouTube had switched to a affordable subscribtion model like 5 years ago, today we’d have a much better platform. I don’t think it’s so much the subscribtion model itself that’s the issue, but the transition from a free platform to paid one.

bonegolem,

Original YouTube, before Google, was one of many Video streaming websites – living alongside competitors such as Dailymotion, Vimeo… And Google video. Those guys, yes, would’ve deserved this sort of compassion.

Google’s YouTube is an evil entity that bruteforced itself into a de facto monopoly, routinely changes the rules for content creators that have built the platform and often depend on it for their living, allows a predatory system of copyright trolls to thrive at the expense of the creators, frequently allows creators to be robbed of their channel and income by arbitrary strikes while being completely deaf to requests for help, leverages Google’s power to crush potential competitors, influence public opinion, stifle free speech… I could go on. Sympathy for such an entity, quite frankly, for me, is a form of Stockholm syndrome.

Stumblinbear,
@Stumblinbear@pawb.social avatar

Whether you like their actions or not, they still have bills to pay

Karyoplasma,

They already do make more than “a little profit” from YouTube. The shareholders demand infinite growth tho, so Google has to nickle and dime their users for even more profit. The bane of any publicly traded company.

Critical_Insight,

I have been using YouTube almost since the day one. I’ve watched tens of thousands of hours of free content, and I’ve not watched a single ad. If their every user was like me, then how could they make any profit from it? Now the profit comes from the people that do watch those ads aswell as people who pay for premium. What does that make me then? A freerider.

Karyoplasma,

You’re still adding views to the video and engage by liking which is good for the influence metrics. Google uses that to ask for higher prices to show ads on that video. Well, they give the influence metrics to advertisers and they have to decide themselves how much showing an ad on this video would be worth for them. It’s like an instant auction, there is no fixed price. So, while you are freeriding, the compensation of you not seeing ads is mainly covered by advertisers.

To be clear, advertisers are not paying more because they pay Google for an ad that is blocked (that’s not happening), they pay more because Google uses your views to tell advertisers that this video is a good investment.

Stumblinbear,
@Stumblinbear@pawb.social avatar

You adding views to some random video absolutely does not offset the cost of your usage through ads. Ads can make a surprising amount of money for a platform (upwards of 4 or 5 dollars a month per free user). Based on YouTube removing premium Lite, I think it’s actually very safe to assume that the consumption of free users is around that, so approximately $7 per month on average. Do you honestly think this would offset that cost in any universe?

It’s okay to want stuff for free. Just make sure you fully understand the consequences and don’t try to play it off like you’re the good guy.

theshatterstone54,

more than “a little profit”

Can we be sure about that? YT is owned by Alphabet, a publicly traded company. However, they have chosen not to disclose the financial statements of YT, thus not telling investors about profits or losses. Now think about it: if you had a cash cow that was making you a fortune, wouldn’t you want to disclose that to investors, make it public, so that your company (and the stock you own in it) is worth more? And yet they don’t do that, which makes me (and Louis Rossman apparently) think that YT is likely not as profitable as we may think, if it even turns a profit. The ad business, especially now, is not doing well, which coincides with YT’s crackdown on ad blocking. Why would that be? Probably because they are at a loss rn, and are truing to make that back by forcing users to watch ads.

Cethin,

Youtube may be making a loss, but Google is not and they are better off keeping users in their ecosystem. If there was a viable alternative, I doubt this would be happening. There isn’t though, and with no competition anymore they’re free to capitalize and attempt to make as much profit as possible.

theshatterstone54,

That’s why I was going through my list of Youtubers I’ve subscribed to the other day. So basically, many of them are on Odyssey or PeerTube, and some have their own podcasts and blogs, so I’ll be able to keep up with most of the creators I follow on YT, and the work they do.

Collective,

the nature of the web is that you are sent information and a suggestion of how to render it. The user is free to view as little or as much of that content as they decide.

“ad blockers arent allowed on youtube” is an insane statement. ad blockers arent on youtube. you are just being selective about which content you render.

it is greedy to try and rewrite the fundamental workings of the web because you feel entitled to profit.

Stumblinbear,
@Stumblinbear@pawb.social avatar

Okay, let’s get rid of all ads and move to subscriptions across the entire internet. What a fantastic idea.

DreamySweet,
@DreamySweet@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Donations work too.

Stumblinbear,
@Stumblinbear@pawb.social avatar

Donations don’t work by themselves. Pretty much ever.

Collective,

Maybe expecting payment for freely given information isn’t actually a good business model.

Corporations have taken the ‘supermarket chain’ methodology of using huge amounts of capital to cement themselves as the standard until competition dies and then hiking the prices. But i don’t think that actually works for the web. They get all the users and sink (or buy out) the little guys, sure. But how many of these platforms are able to turn that into profit?

As the platforms become more and more desperate, they bend further and further to advertiser’s whims and everyone suffers. Its not like they’re really paying content creators anyway. Most of them make their money from patreon/etc.

I cant stop giant corporations from breaking the web but i’m not going to pretend that disabling my adblocker would be helping some small struggling company, and im certainly not going to thank them for it

snowbell,
@snowbell@beehaw.org avatar

Hell yes, lets do it

Stumblinbear,
@Stumblinbear@pawb.social avatar

You know you could just subscribe to remove them anyways right?

trustnoone,

Lol That’s awesome, less of a workaround and more of a “we fixed it already, but whatever you’re using probably hasn’t caught up yet”.

EarthShipTechIntern,

I watch on duckduckgo video search results (no ads, fully private) or yt-dlp if I want to watch it again later.

Good to have the ad-block instructions for using the actual YouTube site.

Also thanks other commenters for recommendations of freetube and futo, reminders of pipe. Will try em out soon!

NiaTheCat,
@NiaTheCat@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

btw its not actually fully private when watching them from DuckDuckGo, they give a warning that the video provider can still track you when watching from ddg. Likely much less, but they still have their ways

Interesting to know that it doesn’t have ads from there though

EarthShipTechIntern,

So their YouTube use is private-ish like Santos is Jew-ish.

TigrisMorte,

And hows it work with a pihole?

Karyoplasma,

You cannot block YouTube ads with a pihole.

Holzkohlen,

Pihole can’t block youtube ads to begin with. Or rather if you do, you have to block the actual videos as well.

doublepepperoni,
@doublepepperoni@hexbear.net avatar

They’re just being dicks considering how tiny the Firefox userbase is

I fully expect to have to be fingeprinted, DNA tested and retinal scanned to access cOnTenT in a year or two

n3er0o,
@n3er0o@lemmy.ml avatar

They already requested my ID a couple of years ago, because for some reason they classified some RDR2 channel I was watching to be 18+. I literally blacked out EVERYTHING besides my name and date of birth and they accepted it lol.

Des,
@Des@hexbear.net avatar

youtube seems to be making changes as fast as the ublock people are so if it doesn’t seem to work you might have to wait for the ublock volunteers to catch up again.

yote_zip,
@yote_zip@pawb.social avatar

Emphasis on #4 here - the anti-adblock will trigger if it detects any subpar adblocker, including e.g. Brave Browser’s “Shields” thing (even if you also use uBlock Origin). Helped a friend figure this out lately and found out they were running 3 adblockers and Brave Browser. Some people are truly special.

Flatworm7591,
@Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Definitely, and note that (for me anyway) I didn’t have to disable any of my other extensions. I think they are referring mainly to adblocking extensions in that step.

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