I often see the sentiment that YouTube and adblockers will be forever locked in a cat-and-mouse game. However, for many years now, Twitch has entirely eliminated adblocking on desktop web.
What is stopping YouTube from replicating Twitch’s advertising strategy of embedding ads directly into their videos?
The European Union is about to ban anti-adblockers since they run scripts on your computer without your consent, thus violating GDPR.
How is that any different from any other javascript on a website?
You don’t need permission for essentials. If your side requires a JavaScript to open a window it is fine, same as css, login scripts,etc etc. Even some cookies are fine.
But there already have been rulings by EU courts in the that a script to detect adblockers is not essential. Also GDPR and the cookie regs forbid negative consequences for refusal.
That sounds like an absolute clusterfuck in the making
How so? I would love to see this in my country.
How do you determine what’s essential?
If I have a script on my site that implements page transitions (eg. when an internal link is clicked, fade out the old page and fade in the new page), is that essential or non-essential? It’s a part of the site’s design, however the site still functions without it.
It’s a slippery slope.
It’s not even a slippery slope, it’s a giant cliff of unattended consequences. Innovation in web technology could be haunted by bureaucracy.
There will just be another popup and everything is fine. Ads are youtube business model, they can ask you to deactivate adblock, pay up or leave the site like a lot of news sites do. Running anti-adblockers is entirely within the law if you get informed about it on the site.