YouTube is one of the most dominant websites on the Internet. It's filled with countless hours of content and has launched the careers of numerous creators. With that said, YouTube generates a lot of money both for itself and for creators. The way it does this is by being a very lucrative advertising space. Not only are there clickable ads all over the page, but the most prominent ones are ads that play before — and sometimes during — a video. Some of these are able to be skipped, while others aren't. It's like watching television with commercial breaks. Some people hate the pesky ads and have installed ad blockers to their browsers, allowing them to not ever see ads if they don't want to. Now YouTube is striking back — first by sending a popup message to warn users that ad blockers are not allowed on the site, and most recently by slowing down videos when watched by someone with an ad blocker. YouTube's JavaScript code has a built-in delay mechanism that intentionally holds up the video playback on desktops for 5 seconds. There has been plenty of anger over YouTube's actions. In addition to introducing unskippable 30-second ads to its TV app, the company increased the price of YouTube Premium last year. It now costs $13.99 a month to remove ads from YouTube and YouTube Music, or you can buy a yearly subscription for $139.99. In response, many people have simply abandoned YouTube for other video sites.
