YouTube Starts Cracking Down VPN Users, By Cancelling Cheap Premium Subscribers

YouTube Premium, red crossed

If money is what a company is after, YouTube is one of the most aggressively persistent entities wanting to achieve what it wants.

The video streaming giant from Google, starts hunting down users who have been enjoying YouTube Premium at a discounted rate through the use of VPNs. This time, these people are facing cancellations, as Google is reportedly cracking down on this practice.

According to reports, a number of subscribers said that they had been using VPNs to access lower-priced subscriptions in countries like Ukraine, and had their memberships abruptly terminated.

But it's worth noting that this crackdown is not just limited to Ukraine.

Users from various countries who have been utilizing VPNs to access cheaper YouTube Premium subscriptions have also reported cancellations.

This suggests a broader effort by Google to ensure fair pricing across different markets and prevent users from exploiting regional pricing differences.

On the web and apps, Google is able to follow users around whenever they're online.

With this ability, the company can profile users, and understand their habits and interest, which in turn allows it to target them with ads that are the most relevant to them, driving increased clicks and interactions. The thing is, not everyone likes ads, and not everyone loves Google's stalking abilities.

Because of this, many internet users rely on what's called "ad blockers," which essentially stop ad scripts from running, thus preventing ads from showing up.

Google, which earns most of its money from showing ads, doesn't like this at all.

And in a massive crackdown on ad blockers on YouTube, Google is making it clear, that people using ad blocks don't belong on YouTube.

Following this, the company seemingly tracks down VPN users, due to users' understanding that the service offers varying rates for different markets based on local economic conditions and consumer expectations.

In the U.S., for example, a single account subscription costs $13.99 with the Family plan priced at $22.99 per month. This includes ad-free playback, YouTube Music, background and offline playback for up to 6 people.

In some regions, a YouTube Premium subscription can be almost 90% cheaper than this.

One of the most well-used workarounds to obtain a cheaper YouTube Premium subscription is using a VPN to connect to a server with a cheaper pricing model, like in the Ukraine.

Currently at war, Google has a given people in Ukraine a chance to obtain a Premium subscription for just 99 Ukrainian hryvnia, which is under $2.50 per month.

By utilizing VPNs to mask their location, and by going a number of process for signing up, users who were able to bypass these regional restrictions can subscribe to Premium at significantly lower prices.

YouTube Premium blocked.

According to growing reports on Reddit, Google appears to be simply cancelling Premium memberships where the account holder has used a VPN to obtain a cheaper subscription fee.

According to the reports, while some users have reported success in contacting customer service and reinstating their memberships, others have been informed that their cancellations are due to a change in location.

At least one users on the original Reddit thread confirmed with YouTube support that their Premium subscription was canceled as they had “moved” to a different location from the region they had originally signed up in.

Furthermore, they were advised that they need to re-subscribe using a local payment method and address to access the appropriate pricing for their region.

For those who have been affected by these one-sided cancellations, their options are limited.

They can either re-subscribe using their actual location and payment details, which will likely result in a higher monthly fee, or explore alternative ad-blocking solutions which also goes against YouTube's terms of service.

While Google doesn't provide any statement for this move, it's worth noting that Google never explicitly mention this kind of thing on YouTube’s terms of service, meaning that workaround like this can happen at any time without prior notice.

Published: 
24/06/2024