HACKER Q&A
📣 ColinWright

A friend runs ghostery, and now is blocked by YouTube


A friend of mine runs ghostery[0], and now YouTube has banned/blocked them, claiming that running an ad-blocked violates their terms of service.

Has anyone else had this problem?

What action did you take?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostery

  👤 KomoD Accepted Answer ✓
Solution: use something else.

I use ublock origin and I have no issues using youtube.

👤 ColinWright
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostery
👤 dredmorbius
My browsers are heavily ad-blocked and privacy-tuned.

To the extent I still do, I mostly access YT via:

- Links posted elsewhere (mostly HN and the Fediverse)

- Alternate front-ends such as a Piped (<https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped>) or Invidious (<https://github.com/iv-org/invidious>) instance. Both of these are increasingly attacked by YT, and Invidious largely doesn't play locally, Piped seems to work more consistently. Search still works fine however.

- Copying the video URLs and playing them via a third-party, non-browser-based video/media app, usually mpv, though occasionally VLC or others. This might be full video or audio-only. (I often simply listen to videos, treating them as podcasts.)

For someone who's interacting with the site (rating videos, posting comments, posting content) you'll likely have to bend to YT's demands. Options here include specific browsers, browser profiles, or browser containers which are tuned to what it is YouTube wants, whilst you leave the rest of your browsing configured as you prefer it.

Or, you know, walk. Exit, voice, loyalty: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit,_Voice,_and_Loyalty>