VPNs aren’t hard to detect, especially if you’re using a major service.
100% this, I work in cyber sec and it’s very easy these days for services to detect this.
What about TOR browser?
That’s even easier. The list of exit nodes is public.
Feel sorry for the guy in the datacenter using Netflix on his brake.
using Netflix on his brake.
Offering Xzibit some new ideas
Yo dawg, we heard you like Netflix so we put Netflix on yo brakes so when you brake you can watch Netflix, dawg,
Must be hard to see all the way down in the foot well.
That seems like a failure on their part. Buy more exit IPs.
There’s a lot more than just recognizing known raw IP addresses used as endpoints.
One method larger services with CDNs use effectively is to use DNS for blocking. When you try to access a site, your DNS request will resolve to a server close to you, with your location determining the domain resolving to a different IP. Then the platform just responds to those requests from outside their normal area with a consistent message. No need to know whether it’s actually a VPN or not, the traffic is acting like it is and doesn’t really have much of a reason to do that normally.
Well, you can put your DNS requests over the proxy as well, so kinda a skill issue. I don’t know if people do though - you’re the professional.
This isnt new. Its been happening for years. There is a post about this on lemmy every few weeks. It just doesnt happen consistently, so people always think that they “discovered” this for the first time.
But this is even dumber than before, you can’t even login to bypass. What about people living in a country where youtube is blocked. I guess Google just says “fuck 'em”?
What about people living in a country where youtube is blocked. I guess Google just says “fuck 'em”?
Yyep.
If you’re using a VPN, you’re likely anonymized and not directly making YouTube any money. Those are leeches, as far as a Google accountant is concerned.
They said logging in doesn’t make it go away. Being logged in means they can already track you, so this is pretty ridiculous of them tbh.
Being logged in means they can track what you watch. Being logged in via a VPN means they can’t track your location.
Literally valuable information.
A few days ago I gotta message from google saying they “can’t verify my age” (meaning they want gov ID I’m sure) so I’m forced to use safe search and other stuff too.
Fuck. That!
I see. I havent had a Google account for like 8 years, so i didnt notice the difference.
Why is YouTube blocked?
Authoritarianism.
Free access to “radical” ideas doesn’t bode well with conservative governments.
Probably part of the age verification bullshit
“This will allow Youtube to locate the best content” 🤡
It’s so insulting they add flavour text like this as if to call you a fucking moron to your face
“We know what’s best for you”
It seems like most people will believe any technical-seeming message shown to them.
But I don’t want the best content.
I want the old YouTube
They always could. What appears to be happening is that channels now have the option to turn on “a switch” so that content wont play if a VPN is detected. Most VPN ip addresses are well known, because they arent a secret. Everyone who uses the VPN goes through it.
If you come across the above message, its because the content creator turned it on. I had it come up with “stick to football”. Its the only thing that it comes up with. I just unsubbed and wont watch anymore. Im not turning off my VPN for anyone or anything. Id rather just go with out. I encourage all of you to do the same.
When I see content blocks like that anymore, I just leave the content behind and go elsewhere. Malicious companies will not get my clicks. They can fuck right off.
Good sign though, means they are getting desperate. It is our duty to starve them of traffic.
Sure, but there are also lots of other ways around it. Non-chrome browsers (or Chromium-based browsers) still allow for good extensions that can block YouTube ads.
Firefox + uBlock Origin still works great, even when all the front-ends are broken.
There sure are, and if necessary they can be applied and are good practices in general. As long as these web sites still see user traffic, monetized or not, even with users using workarounds, they’ll keep thinking what they are doing is cool, and the only problem is that they just have to monetize harder, and then “obviously” all those workaround users will fall in line and monetize like everyone else once they’ve “fixed the glitch”.
If they see a void of user traffic, that gets their attention. Of course, for the person viewing the content, the person has to make a conscious choice to go elsewhere/watch something else/do something else. Would be a good time for content creators to start shifting as well. Patreon even lists a bunch of video services that are not YouTube: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/360046704651-What-are-my-video-hosting-options
I encounter VPN blocks everywhere frequently. I usually just reroll my selected server until the block goes away
The “best content” being ip-located ads, probably.
probablyTIL ads are content!
They are if you own the platform.
VPN ads seriously need to stop promising that you can get around content restrictions.
People should educate others on how to get content not available in their area for free without the hassle.
If media isn’t available in your area, then the company is telling you they don’t want your money. There is a $0.00 loss to them if you pirate it.
Unless you calculate it using the Nintendo formula, in which case you owe them $3 million.
Which is why there needs to be better pushback “Okay, so where exactly are you selling a functional SNES cart that I can plug into my SNES and play?” as an example.
What’s the lawyer speak for “Skill issue, just use a time machine” again?
I’m not sure how that pushback can be applied. It’s not a legal argument that I am justified in stealing something if you won’t sell it to me. Although, at the same time, I don’t know what basis they have for claiming damages.
The pushback would be when they cry about monetary losses for something they literally don’t even sell anymore. Is this not why they’re always trying to take down ROM sites?
Yeah the damages don’t make sense. They might be able to press other changes.
The law isn’t about what makes sense.
Yeah they need to start rotating egress ips regularly. It’s a cat and mouse game
Or they need to do a better job at getting around content restrictions
I mean… detecting (some) VPNs is as trivial as
fetch('https://github.com/NazgulCoder/IPLists/raw/refs/heads/main/output/vpn-ipv4.txt').then( res => res.text() ).then( res => console.log( res.includes( "1.2.3.4" ) ) )thanks to https://github.com/NazgulCoder/IPLists/
FWIW though I did try, connected via a random VPN from ProtonVPN from Argentina… and it wasn’t in that list. So it’s not perfect. Also ProtonVPN has apparently today 13K servers according to https://protonvpn.com/vpn-servers
That being said I can imagine that Google, which is literally built on crawling the Web, has all the infrastructure and expertise needed to have such lists and up to date ones.
I’m not justifying blocking VPN here, only trying to clarify that unless you self-host in a rather specific setup (i.e. not relying a popular cloud provider but truly self hosting) it’s technically not hard to block VPNs.
Understanding is the first step to fighting draconian policies.
Many websites now just block a large range of cloud and VPS services in order to reduce DDOS from AI crawlers. For youtube and reddit you can still access if you are logged in though.
Well, they need to make sure the right people are watching the right propaganda.
They lobby both parties, people are just talking about the Trump donations now as he is currently in power
That only covers political donations, not outright payoffs.
If money is speech, what is a company “saying” when it donates to both parties?
It’s just lobbying to get their interests. They aren’t specifically pro rep or pro dem they are pro google
As someone who uses multiple VPNs daily I have a suggestion. Try to locate a different server and connect to it. See if there’s a drop down menu in your VPN app. Sometimes a particular IP on one of those servers flags websites’ fraud detection. Sometimes I can switch servers on my VPN and refresh the page and it loads just fine.
Excellent advice. It’s a game of cat and mouse (or whack-a-mole, whatever metaphor works…).
Sites that want your data for whatever reason hate VPNs, so they identify exit points and blacklist traffic from them. VPN providers know this so they spin up new exit points with different IP.
Just try a different server. Sometimes it’s a regional ’rights’ issue, so pick another server that is in the same jurisdiction, for instance in the case of streaming.
My ISP has started throttling YouTube to ~2mbps when viewed from desktop. Using a VPN gets around this and lets me watch in HD. Luckily I’ve not encountered this error yet, but if I do I guess it’s no more YouTube for me, 480p is just way too blurry to put up with.
Why would your ISP do that?
They’re 5g based, so I suspect it’s within the terms of service somewhere that they can limit the streaming quality? Historically I’d only ever noticed deprioritization, never a hard bandwidth limit.
Rip net neutrality
to save bandwidth
I wonder if there’s any workaround besides VPNs like changing DNS or something?
Phone->revanced
Smart tv->smart tube next
I don’t ever watch YouTube on my laptop but I’m sure there are utilities available.
Revanced is only in android right?
I think so. Only apple product I ever had was an iPod, so I’m extremely unfamiliar with their ecosystem.
I prefer NewPipe to Revanced.
So long as you’re denying Alphabet the ad revenue, then you are doing the right and just thing.
I use 1.1.1.1 so I don’t think it’s easily ignored by changing DNS. But interestingly while using Revanced and NewPipe on my phone I don’t have any of the same problems. Maybe my computer is ignoring my router’s DNS? Maybe mobile YouTube is delivered from a different server? I wish I knew but ultimately using a VPN still works for me and is a very low effort fix.
What I don’t get is why it’s only YouTube they choose to throttle. I’ve never noticed any issues on other streaming websites and fast.com which literally uses Netflix servers is also full speed.
Listen at this point, we either re-upload our favorite creator’s content to other platforms. Convince them to join alternatives or help out *their replacements" on those alternative platforms to grow.
Either way I do not respect content-creators that do not support alternative platforms (& decentralization) on principle
Listen at this point, we either re-upload our favorite creator’s content to other platforms. Convince them to join alternatives or help out their replacements on thise alternative platforms to grow.
I am with this, tired of using a yt frontend to watch videos (sometimes real website), and no reuploads nor have alternatives.
I vote for all of what you said
I’m surprised it took so long, I’ve not been able to watch Channel 5 for years.
Anyhow, I love Revanced.
It’s time to switch to Newpipe or Invidious, YouTube clients focused on privacy, without adverts and without Google’s clutches.
newpipe won’t work for much longer. Google is mandating android apps be signed by them, and you can sure as shit bet that newpipe, which eats into their profits, ain’t gonna get signed
Oh no! I’ll miss you, Newpipe.
