YouTube began showing a black screen to users with an ad blocker

YouTube users who have an ad blocker enabled in their browser suddenly encountered a black screen problem when trying to watch a video. The issue has been seen in several browsers, including Firefox and Edge, and lasts for about six seconds before the video starts playing.

Image source: Alexander Shatov/Unsplash

YouTube is actively fighting ad blockers, including trying to attract users to the Premium subscription, which costs $14 per month. In this context, the company has introduced server-side advertising, which is built directly into the video stream, which creates insurmountable difficulties for blockers, since their technology works on the side of the client browser, Ghacks reports details. Previously, YouTube used various methods such as delaying playback for users, showing warnings for those who block ads, but this did not lead to significant results.

According to reports from users on Reddit who encountered the problem, when trying to play a video with the blocker enabled, a black screen appears instead of the video and playback stops. Disabling the blocker solves the problem, but users are forced to watch ads.

At the moment, YouTube representatives have not officially commented on the appearance of a black screen for users. It is unknown whether blocking videos for users with blockers is intentional or a bug. However, YouTube’s actions have caused a wave of criticism from users accusing the company of unfair practices and attempts to bypass blockers at any cost. However, many indicate that they use them because advertising on YouTube has become too intrusive.

It is not yet known how YouTube plans to resolve this situation. Perhaps the company will find a way to implement server-based advertising without blocking users with blockers. However, it seems that YouTube will continue its policy in this direction and, perhaps, for this purpose it has introduced the display of advertising embedded in the video stream itself. In response to the black screen issue, users can manually update their blocker filters to exclude YouTube.