Based on recent reports, YouTube is actively restricting access to Premium accounts created through VPNs and cracking down on users accessing Premium content across different regions. According to user discussions, YouTube now detects and blocks VPN connections when attempting to stream Premium content[1][2].
Some key impacts:
- Users report being unable to play YouTube Music through Sonos speakers when using a VPN, with the service becoming accessible only after bypassing VPN connections[1:1]
- Premium subscribers attempting to access content from different regions than their subscription face connection errors and service disruptions
- The restrictions appear to be part of YouTube’s broader strategy to enforce regional content licensing and subscription terms
The crackdown coincides with YouTube’s increased focus on Premium subscriptions, including showing longer unskippable ads to free users in 2025 to drive Premium adoption[3].
Who paid for premium? I can watch ad-free and my screen off on my phone for free
I used this addon and I watch stuff in the phone’s browser
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/video-background-play-fix/
I used to leave Firefox in the background, then resuming from the Notifications.
this makes it a lot more convenient. thank you
A year ago I would have been worried about this, but YouTube is so full of AI slop now that I barely watch it.
They are totally doing it to themselves. there is just too much crap there.
This is why you don’t give them money.
Also other reasons.
Unfortunately YouTube Premium doesn’t solve any of the horrendous problems YouTube has. Using a third party client is the only thing that does.
YouTube premium provides high bitrate and no ads. It is only worth it for tv set up tho.
I like that it comes with YouTube music. That is the one thing I like about premium.
You can install SmartTube on Android TV. It’s the YouTube TV app, but without ads.
Of course not seeing ads on YouTube doesn’t mean they don’t want to profile you to shore ads somewhere else. Premuim is ad free, not tracker free
As far as YT & Google et al, I don’t participate. A good while back, I tried to promote some of my music on YT. The experience was… terrible afaic. I used to use YT for tutorials, but there is no way I’m going to jump through all their hoops and endure back to back, un-skippible ads, to find out that the tut is shit. Screw that noise.
Reddit has been silently rejecting accounts that sign up with a VPN for quite some time now. If you make an account using a VPN, an alias email, using a hardened Firefox, and all the blockers, you can expect that your account will be shadow banned almost immediately. So, as long as Reddit front ends work, I’ll still use it as a resource…for now.
I foresee that private forums will become a thing again where people of like minds congregate and exchange info, expertise, ideas, content, etc. They were once quite popular but people gravitated to these multi billion dollar corp owned social media outlets because it was the next best thing, and now the other shoe has dropped.
What about platforms like Lemmy and Peertube? Seem like a solid alternatives to Reddit and YT.
Honestly just need to bring back Usenet newsgroup traffic
Every time YouTube raises the price of Premium or messes with their ad-model, it raises the value of blocking ads! 😊✨️
I do value my adblockers very highly, and I blocks ads in the browser, via DNS on my home network, and on my rooted phone too. Every time I access the internet on a device that isn’t mine, I’m blown away with how bad it is.
Every time I access the internet on a device that isn’t mine, I’m blown away with how bad it is.
Sometimes my friends will ask if I can take a look at their computers because it’s not working as expected or something is definitely wrong. I am always blown away by all the ads and crap all over the screen. It’s like going to a porn site. I always ask ‘How the fuck do you do this?’ At the very least, install an adblocker. Sometimes I’ll just go ahead and install UBlock, but there’s an issue with doing that. Ublock Origin has a little bit of a learning curve. You actually have to put in a little work before it really works optimally for you. I find that people are not willing to do the work.
Not sure what you mean - UBlock Origin works great for me out of the box.
If you don’t have Bypass Paywalls Clean too, some news sites won’t let you read their articles when they detect your browser- or DNS-based ad-blocking. The user might want to know how to turn it off for a particular site (or learn how to switch to reader mode and/or how to use a site like 12ft.io) to get around that. Or if they turn on extra uBlock lists like the “annoyances” ones they might not see certain social media sign-in pop-ups they’re expecting to see, for example.
at this point i’m using invidious almost exclusively now.
youtube keeps insisting that i use an account at all.
ReVanced for the win
Of course, for the same reason streaming services block it. They don’t want to risk account sharing.
This doesn’t seem newsworthy but more along the lines of “yeah that makes sense.”
More reasons to never subscribe to YouTube.
I just set my VPN to Albania. No ads and I don’t have to give YouTube any of my money.
Good but at best a temp solution.
just buy adguard it supports multiple device, and can block twitch ads too.
Even uBOLite do it
Fuck me if I want to securely access stuff on hotel wifi I guess?
Stop giving youtube money, use ublock and revanced.
And SmartTube on your Android TV.
Not OP but for me I’m fine giving them some money in exchange for me not having to watch any ads while using their services. Just not the amount they want to charge me in my home country. 5€ a month feels fair, 15 does not.
That’s fair, but my code of ethics prohibits me giving money to a corporation that engages in mass surveillance and actively radicalizes young men and women into the alt-right rabbit hole.
Also fair.
Lol, it’s like paying to lose your privacy, it’s dumb!
