YouTube's new anti-adblock

[rusty_shackleford]

op updated

[Atlantico]

If it ever comes to that I am forced to watch ads on Youtube, I'll be happy to not use Youtube. I will of course never ever ever pay those leeching, spying littles shits money for not watching their ads.

[rusty_shackleford]

AFAIk they have done nothing to block alternative invidious frontends e.g., https://yewtu.be/ or `yt-dlp`

[Emphyrio]

I still haven't seen an ad with Brave. Is this only when you watch a "free with ads" movie? I've noticed that the screen turns black on those if you try to take a screenshot.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I've noticed that the screen turns black on those if you try to take a screenshot.

Seems to be a Windows 11 thing. Whenever I tried to take a screenshot of Netflix or Crunchyroll or VRV, the picture was black.

[Atlantico]

I've noticed that the screen turns black on those if you try to take a screenshot.

Seems to be a Windows 11 thing. Whenever I tried to take a screenshot of Netflix or Crunchyroll or VRV, the picture was black.

DRM yes, built into Windows. Imagine someone is getting paid to make that DRM and demonstrate to dumb c-suite NPCs how people can't copy anything from the stream.

Unless you really want to of course, see: stream captures on torrent sites

[rusty_shackleford]

Unless you're completely opposed to the idea of learning a new way to use your computer, I see little reason to not begin migrating to lunix at this point. Most things just werk, stories of incompatibility are from years past.
I exclusively use lunix and regularly play the latest games, for example.
It's not a matter of if you'll migrate, but merely when you get fed up enough to migrate.

https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

[Roguey]

op updated

I get an "invalid filter" error.

[rusty_shackleford]

op updated

I get an "invalid filter" error.

Fixed.

To be quite honest, I don't know why this works. It just blocks the popup. I suspect maybe the list used by brave/UBO are blocking another part of it.

[rusty_shackleford]

op updated

[Roguey]

op updated

Yet another invalid filter.

[rusty_shackleford]

op updated

Yet another invalid filter.

OP is now really updated.

[Roguey]

Malicious user scripts can violate your privacy, steal your data, and act on your behalf without your knowledge. You should only install scripts from sources that you trust.

Eh, I dunno...

[rusty_shackleford]

Malicious user scripts can violate your privacy, steal your data, and act on your behalf without your knowledge. You should only install scripts from sources that you trust.

Eh, I dunno...

Can you thoroughly explain what this userscript does in a way such that a five year old can understand it?
`
// ==UserScript==
// @name Anti Yewtube
// @namespace http://tampermonkey.net/
// @version 0.1
// @description They won't get your shekels
// @author Rusty
// @match *://*.youtube.com/*
// @grant none
// ==/UserScript==
(function() {
'use strict';

let popupRemoved = false;

const removePopup = () => {
const elements = document.querySelectorAll('tp-yt-paper-dialog');
elements.forEach(element => {
if (element.textContent.includes('Ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube')) {
element.remove();
popupRemoved = true;
}
});
};

const resumeVideo = () => {
if (popupRemoved) {
const videoElement = document.querySelector('video');
if (videoElement && videoElement.paused) {
videoElement.play();
}
popupRemoved = false;
}
};

removePopup();
resumeVideo();

const observer = new MutationObserver(() => {
removePopup();
resumeVideo();
});

observer.observe(document, { childList: true, subtree: true });
})();
`

Imagine you're watching your favorite cartoons on YouTube. Sometimes, YouTube will show you a message that says, "Hey! You can't use tools to skip ads!" This is like a teacher telling you that you can't have cookies because you didn't finish your veggies.

This special magic spell (we call it a userscript) works like a superhero. It looks for that annoying message on YouTube and makes it disappear! Poof!

After that message is gone, if your cartoon was paused, the superhero will press the "play" button so you can continue watching.

This magic spell keeps watching the whole time you are on YouTube, so if that message tries to come back, it'll make it disappear again!

So, in simple words, it helps you watch cartoons without being stopped by YouTube's "No cookies for you!" message.

[Shillitron]

Malicious user scripts can violate your privacy, steal your data, and act on your behalf without your knowledge. You should only install scripts from sources that you trust.

Eh, I dunno...

It's a few lines of code..

TL;DR

The script checks for an element that says "Ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube" and removes it.
Then checks if it removed that element + your video isn't playing and resumes your video.

Don't worry Roguey.. your 200 TB's of porn are safe. No Javascript ransomware.

This script only works because Youtube lets you close that window unlimited times and does their time check on the popup locally in the DOM. They couldn't of put less effort into it if they tried.. it's clear they are scared to lose a single user to this change, it's just glorified hassle ware.

I wonder if they will ramp it up in the future?

(Also if you guys use Adblock Plus.. there's a "Block this Element" tool built in.. it works wonders for twitch inlays etc.. and works on the youtube popup too.. so you don't need rusty's hack + Greasemonkey / etc)

EDIT:
Or use a good ad blocker

[rusty_shackleford]

and works on the youtube popup too..

It doesn't, it's loaded dynamically and they reload it after a period of time. You need a script to block it.

I'm sure eventually they'll add a filter for whatever is causing the request once they track it down but I can't be assed to do that.

[Rand]

Freetube still works though.

Google will eventually try to fuck it over, I would think.
Money-grubbing dickheads that they are.

[Shillitron]

and works on the youtube popup too..

It doesn't

It does.

[rusty_shackleford]

and works on the youtube popup too..

It doesn't

It does.

It doesn't.

[Gregz]

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Is this solution likely to continue working, or does the arms race continue?

[rusty_shackleford]

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Is this solution likely to continue working, or does the arms race continue?

According to roguey it's already broken.
I'm not gonna both to keep updating it, I'll just use an alternative frontend like https://yewtu.be/ until that breaks.

[Shillitron]

It doesn't.

It does.

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[rusty_shackleford]

It doesn't.

It does.

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The latest block isn't even a popup tho, it just means you're way behind in the A/B testing.

[Shillitron]

It doesn't.

It does.

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The latest block isn't even a popup tho, it just means you're way behind in the A/B testing.

Maybe.

Currently when it triggers it renders a popup with a countdown to 'x' the box and then renders a dark div over the entire screen that you can't click through on. When I block both those elements my y00t00b experience is essentially identical.

If they actually paused videos for the duration of an ad play.. my method would not work.

(When Dislikes were disabled, I was able to view them for a few hours longer than people could in America.. so maybe an update is rolling out region by region)

[rusty_shackleford]

Currently when it triggers it renders a popup with a countdown to 'x' the box and then renders a dark div over the entire screen that you can't click through on. When I block both those elements my y00t00b experience is essentially identical.

If they actually paused videos for the duration of an ad play.. my method would not work.

There's a reason the script in the OP resumes the video if it's paused.

But they've moved to outright refusing to serve you the video now according to @Roguey, I haven't gotten to that yet so I don't know all the details.

[Shillitron]

Currently when it triggers it renders a popup with a countdown to 'x' the box and then renders a dark div over the entire screen that you can't click through on. When I block both those elements my y00t00b experience is essentially identical.

If they actually paused videos for the duration of an ad play.. my method would not work.

There's a reason the script in the OP resumes the video if it's paused.

But they've moved to outright refusing to serve you the video now according to @Roguey, I haven't gotten to that yet so I don't know all the details.

I don't have that issue personally. The video doesn't stop when those elements are blocked from executing / rendering to the DOM. I won't pretend I've researched in detail the code either.. but for me this is all I needed and the problem went away.

If they change something I'll be fucked.

[Oyster Sauce]

You can follow uBO updates on this situation and a general guide to keep ads blocked here.
People are having different issues using the same browsers and add-ons because YouTube rolls out these changes in waves, and people stack different adblockers and don't keep them updated.

The demand to use YouTube is so high I think there will always be enough people putting in work to bypass whatever adblockingblocking measures they put out. Either way, the only unacceptable solution for me is to pay YouTube a subscription fee. I'd rather stop using it altogether if it came down to it.

[Rand]

Eventually the community will come together and make a proper spoofer client that tells YouTube what it wants to hear.
Shadow ads running in virtual background processes or whatever.
What the Google/YouTube retards do then will be anyone's guess.

[Roguey]

This is what I'm getting now instead of a pop-up.



But it's off and on. I was going to take this screencap earlier except the video actually worked so that wouldn't do.

[garren]

Yeah looks like I got to use https://yewtu.be/ until something comes out that bypasses this shit. You can watch live streams by clicking the embed button.

EDIT: Actually updating one of Ublock's filters fixed everything, for now. Just gotta keep updating that and see how long it works. Ublock preferences --> filter lists, then there's "uBlock filters – Quick fixes", press the small clock image next to it to force an update --> Apply changes button on top.