1080
"i am shocked at how many people don't have an actively hostile relationship with advertising"
(lemmy.blahaj.zone)
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this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2026
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Privacy
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I almost never watch you tube anymore because of this
I use Firefox with Ublock Origin on Android, and if I watch youtube in the browser, it filters pretty much all ads. Sometimes I get one at the start of a video, but closing the tab and starting again has got rid of them so far ๐
One day I need to share a screenshot of how youtube looks on Firefox after a few tweeks. I've used Ublock Origin to block everything I didn't like. It's literally just the player, description, the comments and a link to the settings and my subscriptions.
It's actually shocking when I see unfiltered youtube on someone's stream.
You can try invidious instances like yewtu.be
Invidious is an alternative front end for youtube that allows you to watch videos without ads or other tracking. And it's self hostable. But the public instance works just fine - I actually have issues with YouTube stalling constantly, I assume because of my ad/script blockers. But going to yewtu.be/watch?v=(youtube video code) allows me to watch in HD with zero ads or interruptions.
Youtube does try to fight it, so it occasionally will break, but just like Ublock, Invidious has talented people on the team fighting back.
There's also a firefox extension for auto redirect: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/invidious-redirect-2/
For some reason invidious never works for me, i just get errors and it doesn't load, but FreeTube works great.
There have (especially lately) been a lot of times when it goes down.
My understanding is that Youtube has been changing the way they present or stream videos. I'm not familiar with the technical aspects, really, but Invidious is actively working on the issues.
For me, when I try to use it, it's down maybe 10-20% if the time, but occasionally for longer stretches at once. Not a perfect solution, but another tool you can use to avoid Youtube directly