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.
Youtube can detect VPNs now... the fuck?
Submitted 3 weeks ago by DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/f7986ede-db6b-4d18-8a26-5cf18acab2ff.jpeg
Comments
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
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”?
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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. So they don’t care.
SARGE@startrek.website 3 weeks ago
I guess Google just says “fuck 'em”?
Yes, 100%, absokutely correct.
Google is a company.
Companies do not care about you. You are not a person, you are a number.
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
I see. I havent had a Google account for like 8 years, so i didnt notice the difference.
Smokeydope@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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!
hcbxzz@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Probably part of the age verification bullshit
Kissaki@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
The real highlight is the contradictory text.
To continue, turn off your VPN/Proxy. This will allow YouTube to locate the best content".
“We refuse to serve you anything other than the best ‘located content’.”
A fat lie. Combining refusal with the completely unrelated supposed service improvement of location-based content.
Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
disingenuously sound like they’re doing you a service
That’s the Google guarantee!
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
“This will allow Youtube to locate the best content” 🤡
Credibly_Human@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s so insulting they add flavour text like this as if to call you a fucking moron to your face
SoloCritical@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“We know what’s best for you”
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
It seems like most people will believe any technical-looking message shown to them.
kamen@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
But I don’t want the best content.
GladiusB@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.
GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
You could probably just record the users ID an it’s IP address. IP addresses that see a lot of different user IDs are either VPNs, companies or universities.
fatalicus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Or they are just home users behind a CGNAT, which more and more ISPs use.
And even if they aren’t, home users usually have dynamic IPs, meaning it can change.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Another thing that only very large companies can do is see the response time and compare packet size from different servers to narrow down your location, effectively defeating the VPN in a lot of cases.
Hypothetically, a specific amount of bytes gets sent to server B, response time indicates it was received 300 miles away which matches the response time of going from Server B to Server A where the user lives.
Of course it’s still important to use a VPN, if only because those big companies don’t want us to.
A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
This happens via simple lists of IP addresses, no? I.e. the VPN has a limited number of exit IPs and once it’s known who they belong to, they’re easy to block?
skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
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.
definitemaybe@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
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.
skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
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: …patreon.com/…/360046704651-What-are-my-video-hos…
Xylight@lemdro.id 3 weeks ago
I encounter VPN blocks everywhere frequently. I usually just reroll my selected server until the block goes away
Treczoks@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The “best content” being ip-located ads, probably.
scarabic@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
VPN ads seriously need to stop promising that you can get around content restrictions.
brax@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
People should educate others on how to get content not available in their area for fee 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.
DupaCycki@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Unless you calculate it using the Nintendo formula, in which case you owe them $3 million.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Or they need to do a better job at getting around content restrictions
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 3 weeks ago
Yeah they need to start rotating egress ips regularly. It’s a cat and mouse game
utopiah@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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 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 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.
heavy@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Understanding is the first step to fighting draconian policies.
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Yeah, detecting the VPN isn’t really difficult at all. VPN providers sometimes try to cycle through IP addresses to make it harder, but there’s only so much they can do.
This isn’t really noteworthy, especially when you consider how many services require a sign in when you’re on a VPN anyways. It’s shitty, but not really surprising; They want to be able to tie your traffic to you, not just to a random VPN server. Hell, even without signing in, they probably have your browser fingerprinted. If you’re privacy focused, you probably have a lot of privacy based extensions, in a privacy based browser. And that makes you easy to fingerprint.
nlgranger@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.
lostoncalantha@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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.
porksnort@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
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.
reddifuge@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well they need to make sure the right people are watching the right propaganda.
BussyCat@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They lobby both parties, people are just talking about the Trump donations now as he is currently in power
Saprophyte@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That only covers political donations, not outright payoffs.
skisnow@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
If money is speech, what is a company “saying” when it donates to both parties?
raman_klogius@ani.social 3 weeks ago
If only you don’t serve ads containing literal porn to my face with my VPN off 😡😡
the_tab_key@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
😮 you use a vpn to avoid porn? That’s a novel use case.
Illegalmexicant@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I block porn with my firewall so I have to VPN to get around it.
viking@infosec.pub 2 weeks ago
Huh? I don’t use a VPN unless I want to watch geoblocked content, and adblocking works just fine without.
Dreaming_Novaling@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Couldn’t you just use uBlock and/or NextDNS/PiHole to avoid porn ads rather than use a VPN?
raman_klogius@ani.social 2 weeks ago
This is for the mobile app. On desktop I already use uBO.
biotin7@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
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.
Either way I do not respect content-creators that do not support alternative platforms (& decentralization) on principle
Mwa@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
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 alterntives
atmorous@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I vote for all of what you said
COASTER1921@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
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.
DupaCycki@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Why would your ISP do that?
COASTER1921@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
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.
herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
to save bandwidth
butterycroissant@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I wonder if there’s any workaround besides VPNs like changing DNS or something?
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Phone->revanced
Smart tv->smart tube next
I don’t ever watch YouTube on my laptop but I’m sure there are utilities available.
COASTER1921@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
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 new 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.
starlinguk@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m surprised it took so long, I’ve not been able to watch Channel 5 for years.
FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 2 weeks ago
Oh, so what they’re really saying is that a platform owned by GOOGLE has trouble FINDING the best content?
Everyone knows.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If you find what you’re looking for the first time, they don’t serve you as many ads.
FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 2 weeks ago
Can’t argue with that, there goes my oneliner 🤣
Mattr@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s time to switch to Newpipe or Invidious, YouTube clients focused on privacy, without adverts and without Google’s clutches.
imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Been trying out Invidious lately. Nice stuff if it is not down for a reason or two.
Oh! Speaking of a devil. It is down right now!
Zwrt@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Yeah, i even made a script just to log into its container (proxmox lxc) and pull the latest image when i see video stop loading.
It’s almost always google actively changing things, sometimes directly targeting invidious.
What did also helped was give its container 2 cpu cores rather than just 1. The internally errors and timeouts causes by google changes cause a big strain on it so it often crashed in combination with needing an update (leaving me unable to backup my up to date subscription list)
rosco385@lemmy.wtf 2 weeks ago
I haven’t used Invidious, but I’ve never had.an issue with PipePipe being down.
aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
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
Mattr@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh no! I’ll miss you, Newpipe.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
See, there is the problem, if you use a VPN you dont allow Google to locate the best content! Nothing to see here, YouTube is only trying to be helpful here, Google is absolutely not trying to use you as a data nugget to get rich from
cley_faye@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
People don’t realize how much shit youtube/google ignores over time, for whatever reasons (but mostly because it’s cheaper to ignoer I’d guess). With most major consumer VPN providers, this is very easy to detect. Adblockers are easy to detect. Tampering with the website structure? Believe it or not, quite easy to detect when someone hide a component or change a title or a button.
If they decided to seriously get after people that circumvent geofencing, people that block ads, people that change the interface to their liking, or people that plainly use alternative websites, they could easily. And it would require far less effort on their end to keep things complicated than it would require on our end to keep things working at an acceptable level.
survirtual@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Only kind of true.
If they did implement all those measures, all you do is launch a puppet browser rendered off screen and scrape the content you want. This could work for any site and it is impossible for anyone to detect.
For ads, as a nuclear option, you can detect when they occur and black the stream out.
I would personally do this if left with no other option.
cley_faye@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Cue detection of “realistic” human activity on the UI and preventing streaming if the server determine this activity does not match a human enough pattern.
I’m exaggerating on that one, but… that’s not even that implausible these days.
My point was, dancing this dance with “big website”, whoever it is, will always be an endless uphill battle.
AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
Sometimes I do get YouTube telling me that I need to disable my adblocker to access a video, so they do try to block that stuff (though I suspect that the infrequency with which this happens combined with the fact that not everyone does experience it when some people do report this happening suggests that they’re just testing methods of detection and blocking)
Usually when it happens, I just go into my Ublock settings and update stuff. I can’t remember that ever not working. It feels like a low-key arms race, in a cold-war kind of way
pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
i use vorapis v3 cause they fucked with the video player.
macaw_dean_settle@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
youtube sucks ever since googol bought it. I cannot believe people still use it.
melfie@lemy.lol 2 weeks ago
This will allow Youtube to locate
the best contentand spy on you more easilyFTFY
TheMinister@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Dude, I seem to find more sites that break when using my VPN than those that allow it. The bastards are winning
fin@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
locate the best content
Hell nah, please dont
lechekaflan@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
“This will allow YouTube to locate the best content”
They mean slop? Another reason why I still use Newpipe on mobile.
DrinkyCrow@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
I’m so damn tired of corporations telling me what I can and can’t do.
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
I’ve been getting a “You must sign on to see this content” from YouTube (refusing to play the video if I don’t) for ages when I’m behind a VPN, but if I disconnect the VPN and try again I don’t get it.
Curiously, sometimes it doesn’t happen.
I guess YouTube has a list of IP addresses of VPN exit points and will do that if it detects a connection coming from one of those, but at least for my VPN provider some exit points are not in the list.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
VPNs aren’t hard to detect, especially if you’re using a major service.
Shameless@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
100% this, I work in cyber sec and it’s very easy these days for services to detect this.
MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
What about TOR browser?
tazeycrazy@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Feel sorry for the guy in the datacenter using Netflix on his brake.
parody@lemmings.world 3 weeks ago
Offering Xzibit some new ideas
TommyJohnsFishSpot@lemy.lol 3 weeks ago
Must be hard to see all the way down in the foot well.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
That seems like a failure on their part. Buy more exit IPs.
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.