YouTube Faces Backlash Over Slow Loading on Firefox and Edge After Targeting Ad-Blockers

Some YouTube viewers are complaining of a five-second lag when they try to watch videos on browsers other than Chrome, such as Firefox and Edge. This comes after YouTube started to crack down on ad-blockers, which prevent ads from showing on the video platform.

The lag seems to be a browser-specific issue, as it goes away when viewers change their user agent to Chrome, which makes YouTube think they are using Google’s browser. However, the issue does not affect all viewers, so it could also depend on the user account.

Google has defended its move, saying that, “We want to support a diverse and global community of creators on YouTube and help billions of viewers enjoy their favorite content. That’s why we’re asking viewers with ad blockers to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience. Users who have ad blockers may have a poor viewing experience, no matter what browser they use.”

Firefox and Edge have ad and tracking blockers built in, which could be the reason why some viewers faced the lag. Alternatively, Google may have wrongly detected these features as on when they were not.

Interestingly, the lag does not happen when using the uBlock Origin extension, which is a popular ad-blocker. So, viewers who face the lag on Firefox and do not want to use a user agent switcher workaround, could try using this extension.