Privacy

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YouTube will ban Premium accounts made through VPN (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 days ago by Zerush@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

105 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Based on recent reports, YouTube is actively restricting access to Premium accounts created through VPNs and cracking down on users accessing Premium content across different regions. According to user discussions, YouTube now detects and blocks VPN connections when attempting to stream Premium content[^6][^10].

Some key impacts:

Users report being unable to play YouTube Music through Sonos speakers when using a VPN, with the service becoming accessible only after bypassing VPN connections[^6]
Premium subscribers attempting to access content from different regions than their subscription face connection errors and service disruptions
The restrictions appear to be part of YouTube's broader strategy to enforce regional content licensing and subscription terms

The crackdown coincides with YouTube's increased focus on Premium subscriptions, including showing longer unskippable ads to free users in 2025 to drive Premium adoption[^8].

[^6]: Sonos Community - Unable to play YouTube Music

[^8]: LateNode Community - Why are YouTube users experiencing extremely long, non-skippable advertisements?

[^10]: Reddit r/VPN - Getting around YouTube Premium

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[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 21 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You know, I was trying to pay for YouTube Premium. I do think that was fair even though I knew I could use ad blockers for free.

The prices are outrageous where I live so i used a VPN to find a more reasonable price. Every so often, YouTube would cancel my account and I’d do it again.

This happened several times, but I finally realized that YouTube doesn’t want any money for my account! They would rather I pay nothing at all! That’s so generous of them.

So, now I use ad blockers and I get the same service for free.

Also fuck Google.

[–] Scrollone@feddit.it 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Firefox + uBlock Origin on desktop.

ReVanced on Android phone/tablet.

SmartTube on Android TV.

Enjoy a good user experience as it should be.

[–] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

My exact setup.

[–] Xella@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

They're literally taking money out of their own pockets. Idiots!