Based on recent reports, YouTube is actively restricting access to Premium accounts created through VPNs and cracking down on users accessing Premium content across different regions. According to user discussions, YouTube now detects and blocks VPN connections when attempting to stream Premium content[1][2].
Some key impacts:
- Users report being unable to play YouTube Music through Sonos speakers when using a VPN, with the service becoming accessible only after bypassing VPN connections[1:1]
- Premium subscribers attempting to access content from different regions than their subscription face connection errors and service disruptions
- The restrictions appear to be part of YouTube’s broader strategy to enforce regional content licensing and subscription terms
The crackdown coincides with YouTube’s increased focus on Premium subscriptions, including showing longer unskippable ads to free users in 2025 to drive Premium adoption[3].
A year ago I would have been worried about this, but YouTube is so full of AI slop now that I barely watch it.
They could have just ignored this
ReVanced for the win
Of course not seeing ads on YouTube doesn’t mean they don’t want to profile you to shore ads somewhere else. Premuim is ad free, not tracker free
This is why you don’t give them money.
Also other reasons.
On what terms? I have my VPN permanently on. That doesn’t mean I’m trying to cheat.
On terms of using a VPN. They don’t need a reason. They can just do it
You know, I was trying to pay for YouTube Premium. I do think that was fair even though I knew I could use ad blockers for free.
The prices are outrageous where I live so i used a VPN to find a more reasonable price. Every so often, YouTube would cancel my account and I’d do it again.
This happened several times, but I finally realized that YouTube doesn’t want any money for my account! They would rather I pay nothing at all! That’s so generous of them.
So, now I use ad blockers and I get the same service for free.
Also fuck Google.
Firefox + uBlock Origin on desktop.
ReVanced on Android phone/tablet.
SmartTube on Android TV.
Enjoy a good user experience as it should be.
They’re literally taking money out of their own pockets. Idiots!
just buy adguard it supports multiple device, and can block twitch ads too.
Even uBOLite do it
As far as YT & Google et al, I don’t participate. A good while back, I tried to promote some of my music on YT. The experience was… terrible afaic. I used to use YT for tutorials, but there is no way I’m going to jump through all their hoops and endure back to back, un-skippible ads, to find out that the tut is shit. Screw that noise.
Reddit has been silently rejecting accounts that sign up with a VPN for quite some time now. If you make an account using a VPN, an alias email, using a hardened Firefox, and all the blockers, you can expect that your account will be shadow banned almost immediately. So, as long as Reddit front ends work, I’ll still use it as a resource…for now.
I foresee that private forums will become a thing again where people of like minds congregate and exchange info, expertise, ideas, content, etc. They were once quite popular but people gravitated to these multi billion dollar corp owned social media outlets because it was the next best thing, and now the other shoe has dropped.
What about platforms like Lemmy and Peertube? Seem like a solid alternatives to Reddit and YT.
Honestly just need to bring back Usenet newsgroup traffic
Fuck me if I want to securely access stuff on hotel wifi I guess?
Stop giving youtube money, use ublock and revanced.
Not OP but for me I’m fine giving them some money in exchange for me not having to watch any ads while using their services. Just not the amount they want to charge me in my home country. 5€ a month feels fair, 15 does not.
That’s fair, but my code of ethics prohibits me giving money to a corporation that engages in mass surveillance and actively radicalizes young men and women into the alt-right rabbit hole.
Also fair.
Of course, for the same reason streaming services block it. They don’t want to risk account sharing.
This doesn’t seem newsworthy but more along the lines of “yeah that makes sense.”
I feel good, that I have never depended on YT… I don’t pay them, I don’t watch ads, and I use other services too, and own my films and music… It’s nice - especially when reading posts like this.
at this point i’m using invidious almost exclusively now.
youtube keeps insisting that i use an account at all.
LOL this is insane we should switch to Rumble and other alternatives other wise we are fucked.
There is no fucking way I’m joining rumble.
PeerTube is what he should have said.
I think rumble is similar. You’re only allowed to use it if trump is your god.
Come on, that’s why we have yt-dlp and yt-dlp GUI. Who even uses YouTube on the website anymore?
