Privacy

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YouTube will ban Premium accounts made through VPN (lemmy.ml)

submitted 18 hours ago by Zerush@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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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[^6][^10].

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[^6]
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[^8].

[^6]: Sonos Community - Unable to play YouTube Music

[^8]: LateNode Community - Why are YouTube users experiencing extremely long, non-skippable advertisements?

[^10]: Reddit r/VPN - Getting around YouTube Premium

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[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 5 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

I am pretty sure the video uploader controls when ads play. So that seems less of a platform issue and more of a "that specific channel" problem.

[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I’m not sure. There have been times where I thought, this would be the perfect place for an ad break. And lo and behold… ad break. Sometimes they get cut off mid sentence and I think, either it’s automated, or maybe you’re right and they got a say but didn’t specify enough ad breaks so one was inserted semi randomly…

[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Per their support page, videos over 8 minutes long can have mid roll ads. They can be manual, automatic, or a combination.

If ads were placed that closely together on a video longer than 8 minutes, the creator either did that manually or did not care enough about their audience to check what automatic ads got placed.

[–] tane@lemy.lol 1 points 8 hours ago

Not necessarily: https://x.com/JennyENicholson/status/1933160322048942558

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago

Yeah, YouTube will insert ads but never THAT close to the last one unless they play back-to-back.