Technology

For people who only go off headlines and comments and don't read the article, here's the important bits:

• This only affects some users, not everyone
• The issue is that comment sections are disabled and video descriptions claim to be empty
• The issue goes away with a refresh, you don't need to turn off the adblocker, though you'll have to refresh every video
• It affects all videos
• The link to adblockers is due to everyone who is reporting the issue being a user of an adblocker, and turning it off fixing the issue permanently until it's turned on again
• There's no specific browser or adblocker mentioned in the article
• It affects Premium users too

edit: added "the article" after "don't read" to clarify

I'll stop using YT before i start watching ads.

So my adblocker now also removes youtube comments? That's more of a feature than a hurdle!

uBlock Origin on Firefox with default settings and filterlists still works successfully on Youtube.

"Based on these reports, users see a message stating “Comments are turned off,” which appears across a wide range of videos"

Seems like a win to me.

For Android user I can recommend Newpipe. For the desktop I use FreeTube

Both have occassional issues when YT rolls out their latest enshittification features, but the devs are quite responsive.

Regardless, YT is a loosing battle, so prepare for the day when Google will win this arms race. That is why alternatives like PeerTube are important.

I’ve stopped using YouTube for the most part. Cut down a lot once they broke the search function and I could no longer find what I was looking for because every result would be flooded with random shorts and other irrelevant content.

Then, my account, which was made in either 05 or 06, got flagged as belonging to a minor and they asked me to verify my age with an ID. Why this even happened when the account itself is over 18 now, and I’m not in the US (which I thought was the only place their age verification BS was being implemented) is beyond me.

I wish there were more options for long form video sharing, since YouTube seems to be the only viable platform for it at the moment.

Apparently there is a way around it as I've been watching YouTube all day and haven't encountered a single ad.

So I can still watch the video, just not read the comments that I never read anyway, and can't click the "link in the description ", which hurts creators way more than it hurts me.

Makes sense ... ?

YouTube is coming up with another infuriating way to force users to pay for Premium subscription or watch ads.

Or to let us know its time to quit. I have narrowed down my youtube use a lot. If it is ad only I won't bother at all.

Won't miss much frankly.

They did successfully disable uBlock Origin for me on chrome but I found a workaround that so far seems to be sticking fine despite further updates. Still see comments and descriptions fine on youtube. Occasionally things take a little longer to load than I would expect but I'll take a longer load time on a black screen over being stuck watching dogshit ads relentlessly.

uBlock also seems to just continue to work on FireFox which also plays youtube fine.

I find getting rid of YouTube to be incredibly difficult. I use both peer-tube and odysee as much as possible, but still find myself on YouTube more than I'd like. Of course, I'm only doing YouTube through a newpipe, but it's still accessing YouTube.

I was wondering why I couldn't see descriptions and comments on seemingly random videos for the past two days. Also, it's weird because I use Ublock Origin on Firefox and it's rare that these changes actually effect Ublock Origin. It seems like it may be fixed now though, but I haven't been actively checking.

Pretty sure this does not affect Firefox as my adblocker still does the job

They will still inject ads to your home feed even if you get premium. I noticed the “Introducing” titled video recommendations which are usually 1-2 mins and they essentially place an item in your home feed. When I asked support they confirmed they were targeted ads but you don’t have to click them LMAO. Filthy lying company.

I realised a lot of my yt usage was for having something playing in the background. I've been listening to more podcasts and audiobooks instead and it's been pretty easy to cut back.

Invidious if you can host it yourself.

Freetube if you cannot.

Yt-dlp if all else fails.

Same content, and besides needing an occasional update when google tries to break them again, no bullshit.

68% of people who responded to the poll at the link say that they are not affected. Only 10% of responders are.

Probably A/B testing.

I'm not lowering my security for Google.

Great... Fewer humans and even more bots in the comments... That's a genius idea.

I mirror my yt channel that feeds my family to peertube for my viewers. No one watches it, but I'll keep trying.

PipePipe on degoogled android lol