Based on recent reports, YouTube is actively restricting access to Premium accounts created through VPNs and cracking down on users accessing Premium content across different regions. According to user discussions, YouTube now detects and blocks VPN connections when attempting to stream Premium content[1][2].

Some key impacts:

  • Users report being unable to play YouTube Music through Sonos speakers when using a VPN, with the service becoming accessible only after bypassing VPN connections[1:1]
  • Premium subscribers attempting to access content from different regions than their subscription face connection errors and service disruptions
  • The restrictions appear to be part of YouTube’s broader strategy to enforce regional content licensing and subscription terms

The crackdown coincides with YouTube’s increased focus on Premium subscriptions, including showing longer unskippable ads to free users in 2025 to drive Premium adoption[3].

  1. Sonos Community - Unable to play YouTube Music ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Reddit r/VPN - Getting around YouTube Premium ↩︎

  3. LateNode Community - Why are YouTube users experiencing extremely long, non-skippable advertisements? ↩︎

  • Auster@thebrainbin.org
    10·
    12 hours ago

    Checked to confirm, having 22 Peertube instances integrated to Grayjay (platforms aggregator) so not necessarily one communicates with the other, and filtering the contents from the Home tab just by Peertube instances, and indeed most stuff is months old at best.

    However, least for tech content creators, it seems to thrive. Also, if lack of contents is a problem but the person sees potential in the technology, I’d invite the given person to also help producing contents for there. Like the saying goes, if you want change, be the change.

    And also, the more content a platform has, the more inviting it is to others. Expecting it to be as big as youtube but much quicker and organically is a first step to regret, I think.

    • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      3·
      9 hours ago

      I mean, there’s Patreon, but that’s American. It’s in San Francisco in California though, which is at least not Trumpland. But with how things are headed, I’d be cautious.

      Liberapay exists, but it uses Paypal, which is even scummier than Visa and Mastercard. Uses Stripe too, which is Irish-American (HQ in both countries).

      If there’s a FOSS decentralised* Patreon alternative that would support Wero, cash, and Monero, I could foreseee that having a ton of potential.

      * with the HQ of development or whatever being in a country that’s resistant against censorship.

      • Auster@thebrainbin.org
        1·
        2 hours ago

        Sure you answered to the right comment? I don’t think the topic of this specific comment thread was payment methods.