It's probably because your browser's fingerprint looks too uniform and hard to track. If they could tell who you were, they wouldn't be asking you.
this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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AssholeDesign
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I only ever get this when I'm on a VPN. Sometimes reddit will do that to me too. It means someone's been abusing/scraping YouTube through your VPN server and they've temporarily blacklisted its IP address. Switch your VPN servers or turn off your VPN.
Mullvad with a Ukrainian server works fine for some reason. But it's a PITA to do, that's why I don't go to YouTube anymore.
That would explain why I get this too, but only some days and not others. Thanks for the insight (not OP)
My VPN gets blocked on reddit and YT and it's my private server, OpenVPN on a Digital Ocean droplet in Amsterdam. What the hell?
I've seen a few places they started blanket banning data centre ip ranges since late last year.
They can tell the IP of your server is nonresidential and don't trust it either. But I'd expect it to sometimes work.
Its been doing this to me for at least a year now. I don't have a VPN. I look at old.reddit using duck duck go browser without an account. There's no way I'm going to watch a bunch of random videos while logged in. It would completely screw up their absolute shit recommendation algorithm.
I would guess you're using a bunch of privacy protecting features that's preventing them from verifying your browser/device. Unfortunately, being anonymous is the same as looking like a bot.
Use NewPipe. It only ever gets blocked if you're on VPN or if YouTube did an api update and the app needs to update to match.
Only thing I use is the duck duck go browser. The problem is any YouTube links I come across. I'm just not going to click them anymore and I'm not interested enough to try to find a link for YouTube on newpipe. I'm not going to watch random videos like I did before while logged out of YouTube because it wont let me anymore. I'm certainly not going to watch them while logged in because it would screw up the shitty recommendation algorithm even worse.
Turn off VPN… solid advice.
If you want to view the content, its change the VPN server or use a residential IP. Residential proxies exist but are expensive and I'm not aware of any residential VPN services.
yeah, theyre a/b testing quite hard right now. yt even ip banned me for two hours once. lmao
Apparently, YouTube thinks they have a too many viewer problem. This should fix that.
Are you using a VPN?
I get the same on PC after watching videos for a while, no VPN.
Firefox
Oh, Then they are desperate to block frontends (read:To make alot of money)
Time for invidious my friend https://yewtu.be/
Solid advice
Nice! Thank you for this. I've had good success with Grayjay on Android but this is a great desktop solution
I gotta take a look on grayjay, on Android inusually use newpipe
The only bots we permit are our own and those that pay us for your data
How does signing in prove you're not a bot? Do they not know how many bot accounts there are?
Ive found that if I turn my router off and on again I dont get this message any more for a few weeks.
I get that sometimes. It goes away when I refresh.
Strong enshittification in this one is.
Use a youtube frontend. Pipe pipe is the best because it skips sponsor messages and has downloads, followed by Newpipe, Libretube for desktop. Age restricted and paywalled content still requires sign-in unfortunately.
What browser?