this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
619 points (98.4% liked)

Technology

60076 readers
4315 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
  • YouTube is testing server-side ad injection to counter ad blockers, integrating ads directly into videos to make them indistinguishable from the main content.
  • This new method complicates ad blocking, including tools like SponsorBlock, which now face challenges in accurately identifying and skipping sponsored segments.
  • The feature is currently in testing and not widely rolled out, with YouTube encouraging users to subscribe to YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience.
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 51 points 6 months ago (5 children)

Damn, this could stop Invidious, Piped and Newpipe from being able to block ads.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 6 months ago (3 children)

It might take a lot more effort, but I don't think this will be the end. Google is required by law to label ads as such, giving these tools an opportunity to detect and skip them.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Is there a loophole where they could delay the ad marking like 5 seconds into a longer ad so you'd have to watch at least 5 seconds before an extension can detect it? Is the law specific about it having to be marked as an ad for the entire duration?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

It will be after the inevitable lawsuit happens about 0.0002 seconds after they fully roll this out.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

That would mean running an unmarked ad for five seconds, which would create an interesting legal question. But YouTube also buffers a good chunk of upcoming content, so there's enough upcoming video material to check.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

What law (and jurisdiction) are you thinking of?

My understanding is that this would be covered with a blanket note on the page if it detects you aren't running Premium.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

In Germany, you can't just show advertisement in a YouTube video without marking it. Same rules for sponsorship...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

At the very least I'd say that UK/Germany would be a good bet. Though the idea of just plastering the note over the whole video might do the trick, considering that's what some German channels already do if they are sponsored to stay on the safe side.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

You still aren't referencing a law. You are just saying you don't like it.

I ANAL and am not a lawyer but: There ARE laws about saying if a video contains paid advertisement. That is why basically every single video on youtube has the "contains sponsored content" tag.

There is no law saying that the specific seconds of the video need to be tagged. Which makes sense. It has been a minute since I watched network TV but I don't recall giant "AD" on my screen any time Hikaru Shida wasn't.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Germany has the "Medienstaatsvertrag" §8.3, which requires advertisements to be easily recognizable as such and also adequately separated through audio or visual cues.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I do recall a giant "Werbung" screen ahead of all a-blocs on TV.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Maybe not skip them, but instead play something else over top of them like another video you like, a music segment, or cat videos.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That could also make them okay with those existing, since they'll now play ads. Third party clients wouldn't be such a threat anymore to their bottomline, and people can get the privacy benefits of going through those proxies.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

people can get the privacy benefits of going through those proxies.

Exactly. This is why it will still be a threat to data hungry Google.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Lol this would mean that every website running a looped video in the bg will now haved ads play. Nice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Once several different instances have downloaded the same video, they could share information on which segments are the same?

Ads would change for each download based on all the factors used in the automated ad auctions.