YouTube Says New 5-Second Video Load Delay Is Supposed to Punish Ad Blockers, Not Firefox Users

stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to Technology@lemmy.world – 1674 points –
YouTube Says New 5-Second Video Load Delay Is Supposed to Punish Ad Blockers, Not Firefox Users
404media.co

Firefox users are reporting an 'artificial' load time on YouTube videos. YouTube says it's part of a plan to make people who use adblockers "experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using."

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It's funny too because ads literally are a 5 second delay (at least) that you get when you dont use an adblocker!

I honestly think I prefer the delay over the ad.

Same. Give me the delay. At least I know that’s only five seconds, as opposed to a ten-second unskippable ad followed by another ad that I can skip after five seconds.

You're absolutely right, but we haven't even touched on the worst part of ads, which is how they utterly poison your brain with annoying jingles, annoying colors, and stupid catch-phrases, all psychologically engineered to get stuck in your head.

And let's not even go into how they prey on your fears and insecurities, or deceive you into thinking you need things that you actually don't. How they prey on vulnerable children, or the elderly, or brainwash small children into manipulating their parents against their best interests. Or how privacy has been shredded since the advent of behavioral tracking.

I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that advertising is one of the world's biggest psychological hazards. I would rather sit in an empty room with no stimulation whatsoever than let that poison into my brain.

If I see an unskippable ad, I like to play the game "Roll the dice until Youtube gives up". Hit the refresh key until it gives me the correct video length. Devalues Youtube's ad product and costs YouTube more.

am close video on mobile

That is the way to do it. Then open it on NewPipe or another 3rd party app without ads if you want to see it.

At some point Hulu did that - just like three, thirty-second blocks of silent 'shame on you for ad blocking!' I totally preferred that to ads...

Now I just don't use Hulu?

Ah, the good old days. Put on your show, get up and grab your snack/drink, come back just in time for the show to start, no ads the rest of the way

And even before that when adblockers just straight up worked on Hulu no shame screens to be found