During YouTube’s crusade against ad blockers, the platform has tried multiple strategies, from automatically skipping entire videos to crippling third-party apps. Now, however, they are trying something new.
The company is now experimenting with what could be its most insidious tactic yet: server-side ad injection. This news comes from the developer behind it SponsorBloka prominent adblocker for YouTube, which raised alarms on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter).
Server-side ad injection (also called server-side ad insertion) is when websites integrate ads directly into the video content on the server, hence the name. YouTube’s current method is more similar to client-side ad insertion, or CSAI, where ads are placed on videos in web browsers.
Ad blockers work by blocking CSAI ads, but do not work against server-side ad injection (SSAI) techniques. That’s because ads under SSAI are considered “indistinguishable from the video,” according to 9To5Google.
If YouTube decides to implement SSAI on a large scale, the ad blockers would essentially break as they would be unable to block ads. A small group of users on the YouTube subreddit have reported encountering the technology, with one of the top responses noting that they see ads even though they use uBlock Origin in Firefox. Nothing they do to fix the problems seems to work.
Possible solution
Despite all the doom and gloom surrounding the situation, hope is not lost. The SponsorBlock developer has created a FAQ about SSAI GitHubexplaining this is not the end of the extension.
They argue that if YouTube decides to implement the injection, it will have to send data to the video player informing it how long an ad will last. It is possible for ad blockers to obtain the data and use it to stop advertising.
But it will be difficult to give an adblocker the ability to do this. It may take a while for these extensions to successfully stop SSAI. The developer states that “SponsorBlock will not work for humans” while the experiment is ongoing.
New restrictions
In addition to SSAI, a group of developers have found a possible new restriction on YouTube, where the platform will tell you to log into your account before you can view content.
The website apparently wants to make sure that “you are not a bot.” Android Authorityin its report, believes that YouTube could soon “restrict access to logged out videos in the future.” If this were ever implemented, it would severely restrict how YouTube videos are shared.
did some more digging and it turns out that youtube is an a/b test that limits logged out access to youtube videos. All youtube related projects are affected, including youtube’s own clients https://t.co/uiuyEZEGWB pic.twitter.com/rF5M23cqFMJune 7, 2024
However, software developers are a crafty bunch. The team behind content downloader Cobalt has found a way to do this bypass the restriction. But YouTube could impose stricter restrictions on content sharing and an even stronger crackdown on ad blockers.
Check out Ny Breaking’s list of the best free YouTube download apps for 2024.