Jason KoeblerNov 20, 2023

New: Firefox users have reported an "artificial" 5-second delay when they try to load YouTube videos that is magically fixed if they use Chrome, which has been going viral in a few different places. I asked Google what is going on. They

1) Didn't deny the artificial wait time is happening
2) Said it's part of its war on ad blockers, not targeted at Firefox

Mozilla also told me no indication this is targeted at Firefox

https://www.404media.co/youtube-says-new-5-second-video-load-delay-is-supposed-to-punish-ad-blockers-not-firefox-users/

YouTube Says New 5-Second Video Load Delay Is Supposed to Punish Ad Blockers, Not Firefox Users

Firefox users are reporting an 'artificial' load time on YouTube videos. YouTube says it's part of a plan to make people who use adblockers "experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using."

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@jasonkoebler

I noticed this about a month ago and figured something was up

By the way mine occurred while using Chrome, and I do have an adblocker.

Later there was a warning about using an ad blocker for about a week and it said I could only use YouTube three more times if I didn't disable the adblocker.

Sure enough after viewing thee videos, it stopped allowing me to access YouTube.

About a week ago, the restriction disappeared and I could use YouTube again even though my adblocker was never disabled.

I figured I could live without YouTube if necessary.

Nov 21, 2023 at 3:58pmWeb