this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025

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Google is intentionally throttling YouTube videos, slowing down users with ad blockers (www.windowscentral.com)

submitted 1 day ago by mesamunefire@piefed.social to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 3 points 19 minutes ago

Aha I'm not crazy! There was about a week where YouTube videos were so slow and we mainly use SmartTube on the shield TV, the fucked up part is I pay for YouTube premium, I just like the UI and options available on SmartTube better then the default app.

It did seem to get better, so maybe they realized I fucking pay for this service.

[–] FE80@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago

Freetube works pretty well, there's a cat and mouse game with youtube changes though.

https://freetubeapp.io/

[–] UltraBlack@lemmy.world 8 points 8 hours ago

Remember when videos would buffer all the time on non-chrome browsers lol

[–] AlreadyDefederated@midwest.social 40 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 11 points 14 hours ago

Very good news!!

[–] Siresly@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

I've noticed occasional "buffering" before playback starts through the past week or so. Takes like ten seconds before the video starts playing. Hasn't been worse than that so far, knock on wood.

Youtube feels like an impossible service to actually compete with, whether through the enormous and complicated setup required or amassing creators/users. It's basically a monopoly and it sucks. One will just have to resist Google's bullshit using whatever means available for as long as possible.

[–] Akasazh 7 points 6 hours ago

Still I prefer buffering over the inane noises of commercials

[–] dynamoMaus@feddit.org 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Peertube is working on breaking the monopoly. I try to use it more.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 0 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Never happening.

[–] dynamoMaus@feddit.org 2 points 3 hours ago

It kind of is already happening. For example @lfdi@bawü.social is soon to be making their instance available for state related institutions.

Small steps in a big picture.

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 1 points 9 hours ago

Yeah, I run multiple ad-blockers and haven't noticed any slowdown or other degradation.

[–] catty@lemmy.world 16 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

I'm finding I'm using youtube less and less that I can't actually remember the last time I used it for anything. Youtube has so much crap now.

Because of their monetisation scheme for content creators, it was profitable for creators to drag 15 mins of information out to one hour, and then to include shock faces as thumbs to get more clicks, and then to get more viewers just to watch a bit of the video as viewership dwindles into just mindlessly watching suggestions.

I feel sorry for those creators who have gone balls deep with youtube content and who have no "plan b".

[–] lemmyingly@lemm.ee 3 points 4 hours ago

I think that says more about the channels you watch and your viewing habits. I enjoy STEM and STEM related channels; I don't experience the same as what you've described.

[–] Ekeagle@lemmy.zip 6 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Why aren't you using another platform?

[–] Grimtuck@lemmy.world 22 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Because I don't watch random videos, I watch people I'm subscribed to and they don't exist on other platforms. I would love to switch, really. The very fact I'm on Lemmy tells you that I'm open to doing that kind of thing.

[–] BoycottPro@lemm.ee 5 points 11 hours ago

If the people you subscribe to are not ones who monetization is important you may want to consider reaching out to them and asking if they'd consider cross posting to PeerTube or another YouTube alternative. They may appreciate not putting all their eggs in one basket and reaching new potential fans.

[–] dyc3@lemmy.world 21 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Because YouTube is where shit happens dude. Yeah sure theres peertube and others, but frankly, nobody that people care about are uploading to them. Not to mention they don't offer the monetization opportunities for creators that YouTube does.

Ad block and sponsor block and call it a day.

[–] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Exactly. I dont mind a little extra buffering. I mostly watch things in 720 or 1080, and I've barely noticed the change.

[–] whome@discuss.tchncs.de 36 points 23 hours ago

So it's wait a few seconds and watch a black screen or watch a minute of ads? What a choice...

[–] benjaminb@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I didn’t know if I’m crazy or of YouTube is genuinely slow for me (with adblocker)

Turns out I was not crazy

[–] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

I mean, you can never really rule it out..

[–] frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 60 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A wild YouTube appeared!

Go, uBlock Origin!

Wild YouTube used Throttle!

It's not very effective...

uBlock Origin used Evolve!

It's super effective!

YouTube fainted!

[–] JohneryCreatives@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

This made me laugh. I wonder which one will prevail in the end

[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 2 points 12 minutes ago

Piracy always prevails

[–] happydoors@lemmy.world 22 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Yo I pay for premium and it’s been fucking slow. Cancel my subscription? Guess I might need to.

[–] scintilla@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I had to turn off privacy badger and ublock for it to not be slow. It's stupid I'm paying for the service to be ad free it should be ad free without complaints.

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

Your premium tier has been upgraded to the basic plan with ads at no extra charge for you yet, Dear Customer! Aren't you happy?

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 44 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I watched videos on Newgrounds using dial-up

They are going to have to slow ad blockers by a lot for me to consider it slow

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My wife and I were discussing this. This isnt "slow" to us, its just a tiny bit inconvenient. We were used to the old AOL pictures taking a good minute or two to load.

We would get rid of Youtube before we get ads.

[–] catty@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Ahh seeing images load line-by-line and you get excited as you can actually start to tell what the image is!

[–] AlreadyDefederated@midwest.social 2 points 5 hours ago

"Finally, a nipple!"

[–] dullbananas@lemmy.ca 3 points 17 hours ago

Daniel Suelo for CEO of YouTube!

[–] Alenalda@lemmy.world 7 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Revanced is fine so far

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