YouTube extends crackdown to ad-blocking third-party mobile apps

After cracking down on ad-blocking browser extensions, YouTube is now enforcing its policies on third-party ad-blocking apps. In a recent update on YouTube’s blog page, the Google-owned video streaming platform said, “We’re strengthening our enforcement on third-party apps that violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, specifically ad-blocking apps.”

YouTube said that those who are using third-party apps to block ads in the free tier may experience buffering issues while watching a video or see an error message that says, “The following content is not available on this app”.

The video streaming platform said that its terms do not allow third-party apps to turn off ads as it prevents creators on its platform from being rewarded for viewership.

According to a report by The Verge, YouTube has already started blocking YouTube videos from various third-party mobile apps such as AdGuard. YouTube said that it will only allow third-party apps to use its API when they follow its API’s “Terms of Services”. It added, if an app is found violating its terms, YouTube will take appropriate action to protect the “platform, creators and viewers”.

For watching videos without ads, YouTube suggests subscribing to YouTube Premium, which offers ad-free streaming along with additional content.

YouTube initially started the crackdown on ad-blockers in June, last year, as an experiment. It later started restricting content for viewers who were using an ad-blocking browser extension on the web version of the platform. The streaming platform started displaying a warning message that “ad-blockers violate YouTube’s terms of service”. YouTube mandated users to disable the ad-blocker to continue watching videos on the platform.