YouTube addresses lower view counts which seem to be caused by ad blockers

Re:YouTube addresses lower view counts which seem to be caus... by slightwinder on Wednesday September 17, 2025 @12:02PM (#45277508)

You don't have to care about it. But this is not about privacy, as this API likely does not impact your privacy. YouTube can track what you watch anyway.

And if you watch videos, there is a chance you also enjoy them, so it would be in your own interest to support creators in making more of them. But that's a bit more complicated.

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Re:YouTube addresses lower view counts which seem to be caus... by anon1395 on Wednesday September 17, 2025 @12:14PM (#45277717)

If i am correct, YouTube is trying to say "If you don't watch the ads, you are harming the poor, small content creators!"

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Re:YouTube addresses lower view counts which seem to be caus... by slightwinder on Wednesday September 17, 2025 @12:53PM (#45278330)

Maybe, but that doesn't matter for this case. This is specifically about the view count, not whether you see the ads. But I've seen this was in the meanwhile merged with another thread, which is about the statement(?) from YouTube.

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Re:YouTube addresses lower view counts which seem to be caus... by stefan_ on Wednesday September 17, 2025 @08:45PM (#45283436)

Requests that have no benefit for the user need to be blocked on that premise alone. Do your tracking whatever nonsense on your own computing, thanks very much.

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Re:YouTube addresses lower view counts which seem to be caus... by gkbrk on Thursday September 18, 2025 @02:03PM (#45292883)

> YouTube can track what you watch anyway.

If YouTube could track what you watch anyway, they would have no trouble incrementing their view counter. But apparently that's an unsolved problem of computer science, so they were using something ad blockers and privacy extensions could block.

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