Whatever happens on my browser is client side, which is hardware and software I own. I can make what I own do what I want. It's a right.

It's like Google saying that I can't skim a magazine in my home, and that I must read the ads. Google can do what they want server-side, and I'll do what I want client-side.

Remember when every billionaire apologist was telling us how no one would do shit like this when net neutrality was being gutted?

This is a good time to make aware about an amazing privacy-centric & user-friendly alternative - Peertube. It is not a big network as of now but the benefits it provides over YouTube are large - it is a part of the fediverse. Of course, only through increasing participation will the network become bigger.

If you still wish to use YouTube, you can try third party front ends like Invidious or Piped on the browser; NewPipe(Also is a front end for Soundcloud, media.ccc.de, Peertube & Bandcamp) or LibreTube on Android.

If you only browse YT Music, you can try HyperPipe in the browser. There are many apps for it available on F-Droid, an alternative app store for Android. My personal pick is ViMusic.

Well that's only fair.

It already made it worse for non-adblock users.

However bad they may make it, it can't possibly be worse than it is for non-adblock users.

But hey, if they want to torpedo their own services, have at it. It's not like they have a reputation for it or anything....

I don't know why they think this change is going to get anyone to switch.

5 seconds of nothing is still way better than a minute-long ad

Fuck Google and YouTube, but the title is misleading, and it's an article from three weeks ago. I'm quite surprised that this post is so upvoted, and nobody else flagged this before.

Are they, though? I’ve been using Firefox and uBlock Origin for years and I’ve not had an issue other than needing to manually update my filters three times since this started.

And freetube is making it so much better.

Weren't adblocker-blockers judged going against gdpr?

I mean they've also consistently been making YouTube worse for everyone not using Adblock, so it's only fair.

Great, I'll use it less if that's the case 🤷

By the looks of these default recommended videos, Youtube is great for bigots and authright traitors.

We'll still figure out ways to get around ads. So suck it Google.

As a premium subscriber, it's definitely gotten worse for me over the last month. Whatever they're doing on the back end, it's pretty terrible.

Long time family premium user (household of parents and kids). Anything Youtube do to preserve their revenue within reason doesn't bother me too much as long as they don't reduce the split with quality creators. If they were successful with all this bullshit perhaps they wouldn't have needed to notify me that subs are almost doubling next year. My guess is all they are doing is fucking things up for everyone. It is only going to get worse if their premium subscription base reduces. They should be pricing premium as an alternative to ad-blockers but instead they are pushing people including premium subscribers towards ad-blockers.

I already have ad-blockers and apps for circumventing youtube ads. Not using them in favour of a fairly priced (to me) subscription was a choice but sadly one Google seems to be discouraging.

WHAT?! I didn't believe it for a second when the whole planet immediately noticed at the same time!

But then again, they DID admit it. Which means they have nothing to hide! And that's transparent, and bold. We should reward companies for doing the right thing. Not only criticize them when they didn't do wrong!

Tinkle Fingerent!

*Laughs with RSS feeds, Invidious redirects, Newpipe and Sponsorblock.