YouTube has addressed the issue of videos slowing down with ad-blockers, claiming that the loading delays have nothing to do with its blocker crackdown, according to Android Central.
"Recent reports of users experiencing loading delays on YouTube are unrelated to our ad blocker detection efforts," the company further clarified. "Our help center offers troubleshooting tips for users experiencing issues."
uBlock Origin developer Raymond Hill also explained in an X post that performance issues only affect the latest version of Adblock Plus and Adblock, adding that uBO is unaffected.
There is a lot of chatter in the last days about how Youtube is slow with content blockers.
— R. Hill (@gorhill) January 13, 2024
Those performance issues affect only the latest version of both Adblock Plus (3.22) & AdBlock (5.17), and afflict more than just Youtube.
uBO is *not* affected.https://t.co/O3g48d2DT9
"I investigated a bit the performance regressions, and the cause is many distinct code paths, and affect many sites, those for which the problematic code paths are triggered," Hill added, and emphasized the importance of not using more than one ad-blocker.
Over the weekend, users reported experiencing the slowdown of YouTube with the use of their ad-blockers, with the only solution being to stop using the software or upgrade their plan.
In several Reddit threads, they reported experiencing videos loading five minutes slower, regardless of whether they're YouTube Premium subscribers or not.
YouTube's Global Ad-Blocking Crackdown
The issue came in light of the video platform's global crackdown on the use of adblockers, nudging users to disable their ad-blocking software.
In November, YouTube confirmed intentional delays on videos streamed by ad-block users, intensifying its campaign.
Several users have employed different ways to address long ads on the platform in response. A new Chrome extension called "Ad Speedup" allows users to speed through ads at the start or in the middle of their YouTube viewing sessions, playing ads 16 times faster, and making 30-second commercials run for only two seconds.