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An Anonymous Coward writes:

I have recently read many discussions in places like r/youtube where users who block ads are described as immature freeloaders or selfish for expecting others to watch ads so they don't have to. I believe most users understand that it's expensive to host a video streaming service, and that YouTube has to pay their bills somehow. However, at this point in time, there are very valid reasons for users to continue blocking YouTube ads. YouTube also has better solutions to increase revenue without resorting to their recent aggressive tactics.

Many ads contain NSFW content or obvious scams

YouTube clearly has the ability to detect content that violates the platform's rules, and videos are regularly demonetized for doing so. Because YouTube can moderate user-submitted content in this manner, they also have the ability to moderate sponsor-submitted content. Users have a reasonable expectation to not be subjected to NSFW content without their consent. I have read many reports of ads with cartoon characters engaging in sexual acts, and that is inappropriate. YouTube also does not have the ability to detect who is actually watching a video at a specific time, meaning that they could be exposing children to this content.

YouTube should not be sending content to users that is actively attempting to harm them, and scam ads are doing exactly that. Although many of these scams are obvious, which should make it easier to detect them using YouTube's moderation tools, there are still people who will be fooled. YouTube is not very responsive to user complaints about abusive ads, probably because they don't want to risk losing money from sponsors. One of the main reasons users block ads on other sites is because they are often deceptive or contain malicious payloads. At this time, that is also the best recourse users have to protect themselves from harmful ads on YouTube.

YouTube's argument that banning ad blockers is done to help content creators is disingenuous

YouTube's ban on ad blockers has been accompanied by increasing the frequency, duration, and intrusiveness of ads before and during videos. They have also raised the price of YouTube Premium, though the increased ads may be an effort to drive users to pay the higher subscription prices. YouTube justifies this as being necessary to support content creators. However, YouTube's policies toward content creators is exploitative, and YouTube is not comparable to other streaming services.

Streaming platforms like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime negotiate terms with their content providers, including the price of the content. YouTube does not negotiate with its content creators in the same way, and it has a history of changing the terms of its monetization programs in ways that adversely affect smaller channels. YouTube can also demonetize videos at their sole discretion.

I am not suggesting that each content creator should get to negotiate their terms individually with YouTube. That's impractical. The problem is that YouTube has a de facto monopoly, meaning that content creators don't have viable alternatives to monetize their content on other platforms. Historically, YouTube had few ads and actually lost money, while potential competitors lost users because they had more advertising. Because YouTube has been successful in driving its competitors out of business through its anticompetitive behavior, content creators no longer have viable alternatives. There are a number of other video hosting sites, but they serve specific niches, have far fewer viewers, and hosting content on those services will generally be even less profitable for content creators. As such, YouTube can dictate terms to content producers with little recourse, which is not the case for other streaming services.

YouTube uses targeted advertising at the expense of user privacy

Don't forget, YouTube is owned by Google, which aggregates large amounts of data to serve people targeted advertisements. Google does not respect the privacy of users, and the ads you see on YouTube are generally targeted to you like any other ad Google displays. This is not necessary, and YouTube advertising might be more effective if it was contextual, primarily based on the content of the videos alongside which the ads are displayed. YouTube has chosen not to respect the privacy of its users. The collection and aggregation of data used to target ads is actively harmful to users and is all the more reason to continue blocking ads.

YouTube has better solutions to many of its problems

I believe that users are intelligent and understand that it is expensive for YouTube to host and distribute content, and that those bills need to be paid somehow. Instead of taking an adversarial position, YouTube should take users' concerns seriously and improve the quality of the ads they display. That means vetting ads before they're displayed to avoid NSFW content and obvious scams from being displayed to users. Many of the changes to YouTube's monetization system have been panned by content creators, and YouTube could show good faith by rolling back these changes and making it easier for small channels to monetize their content. YouTube could eliminate targeted advertising, automatically classify the content of videos, and only display contextual advertising. They could also offer intermediate options between being bombarded with massive amounts of ads and paying $13.99/month to remove all ads. For example, a cheaper plan could be offered to eliminate all mid-roll advertising, allowing some ads to remain while being much less obvious to users.

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