Google know who they’re streaming videos to. They know this from the back-end. They absolutely do not require a script running in the browser to phone home about it in order to count “views”. All the telemetry they need they can get from existing traffic; the additional telemetry supplied by scripts is mostly just for Bad Reasons and it’s morally fine to block it.
Google says adblockers caused YouTube views count to drop - this is what adblockers told us really happened
Submitted 19 hours ago by ardi60@reddthat.com to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
moopet@sh.itjust.works 3 hours ago
FunnyUsername@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Tldr: youtube forced ai into video monitoring and it keeps killing videos it shouldn’t, so instead of saying Ai is bad they’re blaming af blockers because why not lie when there’s no repercussions?
YouTube views are dropping because they are using AI to vet and cull age innappropriate content from minors. the problem is the ai is very bad at its job and marks way too many videos as not advertiser friendly, which effectively kills YouTube promoting that video in feeds. this is the default view for new accounts, so you have to specifically turn off parental controls to see a normal feed. this started happening about 4 months ago. a number of channels I watch have made comments about this, including Redlettermedia
b34k@lemmy.world 17 minutes ago
Source: my ass
This is not at all what happened. Maybe try reading the article next time.
TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
youtube forced ai into video monitoring and it keeps killing videos it shouldn’t
That explains why sometimes the video stops and I get error message. I thought it may have to do with switching the script blockers on or off.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 43 minutes ago
Pinch flat. GitHub. Go.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I don’t understand:
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What is ‘AI in video monitoring?’
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The article mentions literally nothing about this, so where did that come from?
FunnyUsername@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
the article provides one “official” explanation for views dropping, and i am citing an alternative explanation from the perspective of creators themselves who see the analytical data and the judgments being past on their videos.
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Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 hours ago
Not saying I don’t believe that’s what’s happening, but the article mentions nothing about any sort of YouTube AI interference.
pHr34kY@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
frustrated by ads that feel irrelevant
What?
Do they think we have a friend-or-foe system that only shoots down advertisements from adversaries?
An ad is an ad, and should be terminated on sight.
bss03@infosec.pub 1 hour ago
I used to prefer personalized ads over the insanity that was 90-00s “random” ads experience. But, since ads became a risk vector, I agree the a block by default approach, and I’ll find alternate ways to support sites I visit frequently rather than allowlist ads.
User79185@discuss.tchncs.de 7 hours ago
Blocking ads for decades everywhere, life is sooo goood without that cancer. P.S. The only place were ads should appear are “yellow pages” thing, for example messenger channels just for that, where you intentionally join to look for local deals, discounts, contractors etc, especially to support local economy and not some megacorp. And ofc current google spying is not helping, block the ads, block trackers, it ruins the “steal the data” model.
alternategait@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
I’m sure that the number of times I’ve decided “nah I don’t need to see that” after being told an ad blocker violated YouTube’s terms of service has absolutely nothing to do with it either.
9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 9 hours ago
Even on a computer without ad blocker (work laptop, chrome browser)
the number of times i say “nah i don’t need to see that” as soon as thes annoying ads comes up before the video…
The decline probably has very little to do with ad blockers.
b34k@lemmy.world 14 minutes ago
The decline was very sudden, almost instantaneous, and can be traced back to the exact date a block list, used by most major desktop ad blockers, added the YouTube View Counter API endpoint to their list.
But sure… nothing to do with ad blockers.
masterofn001@lemmy.ca 2 hours ago
Exactly.
If I am forced to see ads, especially intrusive or page filling ones, I will not continue.
I watched lots of YouTube in the past.
When they started inserting ads into the videos (not channel sponsored stuff), the camel started getting weak.
When they started requiring sign-ins or blocking access when using a proxy that was the straw.
I don’t use YouTube anymore.
73QjabParc34Vebq@piefed.blahaj.zone 16 hours ago
If you see an ad, close the tab.
Vinny_93@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Literally the only way they will learn. I really don’t understand how we as a society have accepted ads as a necessary evil. We all hate them, but we all also make them work. It’s horrible.
sdcSpade@lemmy.zip 14 hours ago
I’ve been wondering for a while where the point of diminishing returns is. Surely, at some point, ads become aggressive enough to have an adverse effect on advertisers?
Nelots@piefed.zip 3 hours ago
It kinda is a necessary evil, if you want free content at least. Especially for a website like youtube where you need to host millions of large videos 24/7. That shit ain’t cheap, and even google can’t make money out of thin air. Not that I’m defending youtube or anything, charging $8 a month for premium lite but still giving you ads is insane. Paid services should never have ads.
My problem isn’t with ads, but rather the type of ads used. Like I said a moment ago, I don’t think paid services should ever have ads of any kind. But for free websites, a few side banner ads are fine in my book, while ads in the middle of a page or popup ads or video ads (especially unskippable ones) are a no-go. Essentially anything that doesn’t interrupt what I’m doing is usually something I’m okay with.
puppinstuff@lemmy.ca 9 hours ago
It’s going to take a big cultural shift to get enough people to pay content creators through subscriptions to compete with ad-driven models.
Eventually YouTube’s hubris will cross the line where enough people will just assume the ads are so bad it’s not worth trying to watch a video. As somebody with technical means and no tolerance for ads I’m astonished more people aren’t there yet.
ngdev@lemmy.zip 10 hours ago
i know what im about to do is beyond the pale on lemmy but here it is anyway. for youtube, they have to make money to host the content and deliver it. you can pay a subscription fee to enable them to do that. they have ads on there for people who expect free shit forever
imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 hours ago
Are these “we all” people you talking about are in the same room with us right now? I don’t really think that would apply to all of us.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 hours ago
firefox and ublock origin.
73QjabParc34Vebq@piefed.blahaj.zone 16 hours ago
All these sites monitor engagement, they walk the line between maximum ads and users. If we decrease the users, they’ll decrease the ads to try and keep us.
grue@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
LOL, nah. If we decrease the users, they’ll increase the ads to try to compensate for declining revenue. They believe they have all the power and don’t give a fuck what we think.
Fyrnyx@kbin.melroy.org 8 hours ago
They'll just insert bots who'll comment generic, soulless things to say instead. "OMG This product amazed me!" or "I cannot BELIEVE how nobody discovered this sooner!" all the while artificially inflating numbers.
Pavidus@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Lemme try and feel sorry for my cartoonishly rich tech overlords real quick…
Venator@lemmy.nz 5 hours ago
also it seems too convenient for them for this to happen just after they removed ad blockers from chrome…
FarceOfWill@infosec.pub 16 hours ago
If the Google war on ad blocking meant the ad blockers accidently blocked something everyone wants its still Google fault.
Everything was fine until Google decided to change how everything works over and over again to get people to watch the awful ads they let on their platform.
snooggums@piefed.world 11 hours ago
Googlees don't "let" ads on their platform. Ads are the entire reason for the existence of their platform.
RamenJunkie@midwest.social 6 hours ago
They cpuld hire some.people to vet the ads.
avatar@lemmy.zip 11 hours ago
Didn’t age verification - also recently implemented - cause youtube views to drop?
Here’s a case of it very well explained.
ICastFist@programming.dev 6 hours ago
It was the first thing most people assumed was the culprit, as it silently enabled Restricted Mode, but since the biggest difference came from Computer views, despite the age verification happening on all platforms, that is strong evidence against that having any impact
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 47 minutes ago
Not to mention most didn’t see a corresponding drop in revenue from views.
Jestzer@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
For those curious what adblocks said really happened
[Adguard] suggested that the issue may have been linked to popular community-maintained filter lists like EasyList and uBlock’s Quick Fixes.
A new filter rule added to EasyList on August 11, 2025 targeted telemetry requests thought to be tied to YouTube’s view attribution and analytics.
That rule remained in place until September 10, when it was temporarily disabled.
A similar change was added to uBlock’s Quick Fixes on September 10 and removed on September 17.
A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 15 hours ago
OK. I mean Fuck Alphabet anyhow, but this means a youtuber who relies on view counts for monetary income (I guess) would actually have reason to worry about adblockers?
Again, I’m not saying I’m against adblockers or even this particular feature. And I very well see what Google is doing here, trying to get their creators up in arms against adblocking. I just want to know if this is debunkable or if youtubers would have a genuine argument here.
I did not really understand above explanation. I guess I need it ELI5.
orclev@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Basically Youtube instead of counting views via actual requests for the videos instead uses a separate call that essentially says “hey, someone watched this video”. All the ad blockers rather than use a hard coded list of URLs to block which would quickly go stale instead use one of a couple different 3rd party lists the most popular of which is EasyList. EasyList decided to block the URL that youtube uses to register views on the principal that it was a privacy violation because it not only registers “hey someone watched this” but also captures exactly who watched it which allows Google to track your viewing habits.
Funwayguy@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
It wouldn’t matter whether it was intentional or not. Put simply, Google can continue indirectly punishing creators for tolerating adblockers then redirect blame, even though they could have easily separated the metrics from the advertising and telemetry endpoints that blockers filtered. This way they get their money either from unblocked ads or from creator’s reduced view counts, win-win for Google.
Mirodir@discuss.tchncs.de 12 hours ago
I kept up with the drama until about a week ago so what I’m saying here is the status from back then someone please add any new context if I’m missing any new developments:
From what it appeared, view counts dropped but ad revenue stayed the same. Even before this whole thing, YouTube pays out for ads watched (and clicked). Pay out was not dependent on raw view count for a long time, if ever.
This suspicious behavior of view count dropping but ad revenue staying the same is actually what tipped people off that the issue was adblock related. The fact that channels with a larger focus on a younger audience seeing less of a drop also helped.
Now those view counts dropping could still have an indirect, negative effect on ad revenue, if it, e.g. automatically leads to YouTube recommending their videos less prominently.
doingthestuff@lemy.lol 13 hours ago
I have a few YouTubers I like to support with views of all of their content. Because I want them to get the support, I watch their content on YouTube with no ad blockers.
muhyb@programming.dev 8 hours ago
cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 13 hours ago
caused youtube views count to drop
oh no… anyway
FireWire400@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
It’s gotten to the point where I have to re-load each YT tab three times before the video ever starts playing - only because I use uBlock.
Still better than watching ads, but it is getting annoying.
LogicalDrivel@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
I have a theory that YT deliberately makes you wait the length an ad would have been if you have uBlock Origin installed. Ive just let it “buffer” for 30 seconds or so and it will eventually load the video.
Typhoon@lemmy.ca 9 hours ago
I’d rather watch nothing than an ad trying to sell me something.
RamenJunkie@midwest.social 6 hours ago
I am fine if it means I don’t have to watch some scam ass ad.
Feathercrown@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Still better tbh
ICastFist@programming.dev 6 hours ago
I have no problems with ublock on Firefox or Librewolf, unless I try to skip past what the video already loaded, then it’s a dice roll whether it’ll work or not
BaroqueInMind@piefed.social 12 hours ago
I have the same problem, and after you start clicking play, often you can wait it out and the video will play on its own
attero@discuss.tchncs.de 11 hours ago
This mostly happens when you use youtube while being logged into a google account.
I fixed this by using firefox containers + addons.mozilla.org/en-US/…/switch-container/- logout from google / clear cookies.
- switch to a new “google” container and login to see your subscrpitions
- if a video doesn’t load switch to decontained
also has the nice benefit of not messing up your reccomendations when clicking on random yt-links from other sites
Fyrnyx@kbin.melroy.org 8 hours ago
It is like they know you're using adblocks, so instead of trying to force ads down your throat, they try making your experience miserable by breaking their own viewer or whatever. It is absolutely petty of them.
Leave a video sitting there in idle for too long, come back, it plays for 10 seconds then has to reload itself. Sometimes, it doesn't do this, so it requires a complete refresh.
They can do this bullshit all they want but I am not letting up on blocking ads.
gndagreborn@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
For me, it works… After a 15 second load and an insufferably laggy UI despite having no identifiable system bottleneck.
SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Yeah yt is basically unusable on Firefox with a blocker and it’s 100% by design. Yt even gives a helpful pop-up offering to tell me why it’s running so slow.
ronl2k@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I switched from Chrome to MS Edge and don’t have that YouTube ad-blocking issue with uBlock anymore.
moopet@sh.itjust.works 3 hours ago
MS Edge is Chrome, with a slight MS reskin.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 hours ago
Zen_Shinobi@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
(shrug) don’t care if it affects views, never should have had them in videos regardless.
dan@upvote.au 18 hours ago
The only real alternatives to ads are either paying for the content, or having someone else pay for you (which is the case with something like PeerTube - someone else is covering the cost of the server and bandwidth without asking you for payment).
tabular@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Paying to access content makes a lot more sense that hoping someone willingly watches an advert on their own hardware.
An indirect, alternate could be universal basic income - which makes it easier for people to choose less profitable options.
baines@lemmy.cafe 13 hours ago
i really don’t care
rather do without than with ads
MaggiWuerze@feddit.org 18 hours ago
If it were sensibly prized I would have no issue with paying for YouTube. But seeing as they almost ask for the same as Netflix and co while not producing any content, I decided for the adblocker instead
kokesh@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Creators are paid based on those views, so that would matter.
Lfrith@lemmy.ca 15 hours ago
I personally wouldn’t care that much if youtube went back to how it was back in the day of people sharing for the sale of sharing instead of it being filled with bunch of aspiring infomercial hosts trying to get the bag.
Have to blocklist so many channels because they monopolize the top search results before I see videos from normal folks just uploading to upload because they thought a video would be helpful.
vortexal@sopuli.xyz 5 hours ago
Something that I’ve been confused about ever since people have been talking about this, is that there didn’t seem to be a change of views from mobile devices. Like, I know that adblockers are less common on mobile devices because most people either don’t know they are available or aren’t using browsers that have/support (good) adblockers. But, was there really no noticeable change at all?
hamsterkill@lemmy.sdf.org 2 hours ago
There was. Some channels even saw most of their decline from mobile/TV viewers.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that wasn’t also related to the adblocker issue, though. How the algorithm reacted to the dramatic change in views could have made waves that saw channels de-recommended or caused it to ignore sections of a viewer’s watch history and thus the recommendations shown to them as well.
With the algorithm everything gets tied together so much that any disruption can have unpredictable effects.
offspec@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Do you have a reference for that? I haven’t seen any channels that saw noticable decline in non desktop viewership
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 hours ago
YouTube is completely broken on my Apple TV — the last platform I have which actually does display ads. When the app loads, I get a black screen. When I tap on a video (click on it? on the remote?) it goes black, stutters through an ad, stutters through the next one, then stutters through the video for a couple seconds. Sometimes I have to start the video over. If I were running an ad blocker, I would expect static like this… but I’m not. I don’t have a PiHole. The Apple TV has direct, unfiltered access to my WiFi. The ads are showing, but the app is just… broken. On my computers (Macs) I get a perfect experience, because I use Firefox with uBlock Origin like a sane person who knows what they’re doing.
phx@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Yeah I’ve had more than a few things where the ONLY thing that shows is the ad, and then the content roll fails and/or it just keeps looping ads with no content
puppinstuff@lemmy.ca 9 hours ago
The black screen on the TV could be related to your TV’s HDR settings. Only recent TVs have started to decrease that temporary shutter between SDR/HDR.
It was annoying as hell in ad rolls before I started to pay for YT lite so my kid wouldn’t be advertised to.
No longer paying since they shuttered the YT Kids app on TvOS.
DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org 12 hours ago
I assume the recent forced JS enforcement which recently broke downloaders and alt front-ends is connected to this somehow.
LoremIpsumGenerator@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
*Goolag shooting itself on foot be like.
The dev community is just adapting to shit thrown.
001Guy001@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
For reference, here are the exceptions I’ve been using to try to make sure my viewership counts. Not sure if they’re all needed
@@||youtube.com/api$domain=youtube.com|google.com @@||youtube.com/youtubei$domain=youtube.com|google.com @@||youtube.com/ptracking$domain=youtube.com|google.com @@||play.google.com/log$domain=youtube.com|google.com ! these are meant for checking for active internet connection (https://www.techtapto.com/what-is-gstatic-why-you-see-it-often/#Is_Gstatic_com_generate_204_a_virus) @@||youtube.com/generate_204$domain=youtube.com|google.com @@||google.com/generate_204$domain=youtube.com|google.com @@||youtube.com/gen_204$domain=youtube.com|google.com @@||google.com/gen_204$domain=youtube.com|google.com
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 42 minutes ago
They’re not getting revenue from you either way. That’s really more effort than I would want to go through for what amounts to a display bug.
pleaseletmein@lemmy.zip 9 hours ago
[deleted]Squizzy@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Youtube has not once on any device or brpwser recognided the most ubiquitous adblocker for me
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 hours ago
Well, I for one stopped seeing YouTube videos ever since they started requiring me to Sign On because I’m using an AdBlocker and am behind a VPN.
If for some reason it’s actually required that I watch it, I’ll disconnect from the VPN and watch it, if not, I just move on.
In the last 6 months or so I have disconnected my VPN to watch a YouTube video maybe once, whilst I just moved on maybe hundred times or so (less and less as I increasingly I won’t even click on links for YouTube).
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 32 minutes ago
At least we know one thing that didn’t cause it.
Thanks for that hint on decoding your shitty blackbox google.