A few days ago, there were reports that users with ad blockers were experiencing laggy and unresponsive behaviour on YouTube websites, which was allegedly part of the platform’s move to combat ad blocker users.
However, that’s not true. The slowdown was apparently caused by two ad blockers namely, AdBlock and Adblock Plus.
A statement from a YouTube spokesperson to Android Central clarified that the loading delays faced by users of Adblock and AdBlock Plus are not a result of the platform’s ad blocker detection efforts.
YouTube says “Recent reports of users experiencing loading delays on YouTube are unrelated to our ad blocker detection efforts.”
Recent updates to the Adblock and Adblock Plus extensions (version 5.17) appear to be causing performance issues, as noted by uBlock Origin developer Raymond Hill on X (formerly Twitter).
Eyeo, the team behind AdBlock, informed Android Central that they have resolved the glitch impacting the YouTube experience and causing increased CPU usage during web browsing.
Gertrud Kolb, Chief Technology Officer at Eyeo, stated, “AdBlock and Adblock Plus users recently encountered slowed performance and higher CPU usage while browsing on YouTube and other websites. Our engineering team addressed the issue and released ABP 3.22.1 and AB 5.17.1.”
The latest versions are currently available on Opera and Edge extension stores, with Mozilla and Chrome undergoing review.
Kolb assured that the problem is resolved, and AdBlock and Adblock Plus users should no longer face issues related to the fixed bug once their extension is updated to the new version.
