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Journalism of Courage
YouTube ad segments may be annoying for some, but most of these ads can be easily skipped after a few seconds. However, the Google-owned video-sharing platform now seems to be making it harder for users to skip ads, which account for a large portion of the company’s revenue.
A few days ago, several Reddit users said they were seeing a black or grey rectangle on top of the “Skip” button with the countdown timer missing when watching an advertisement on the desktop. Now, a report by AndroidAuthority suggests that the company is also hiding the skip button on the mobile app as well. Many speculated that this might be an intentional move by YouTube to make users believe that the ad is unskippable.
YouTube’s statement suggests that it isn’t hiding the skip button for ads, but the company is actively cracking down on ad blockers and has also brought ads to the video pause screen, making it a less enjoyable experience for those on the free tier. Currently, the change seems to be limited to a handful of users and looks like it is part of an extended test, but the change might roll out to everyone in the coming days.
