The ads on YouTube have gradually become more and more intrusive, but the most obvious are the ones that appear on the main page of the site, above the content. However, it seems that some companies have abused this advertising space, and now, the company is adopting new rules. In practice, YouTube prohibits the promotion of certain types of products, as well as certain domains, in order to provide a “better user experience” for users.
The main YouTube banner will no longer show ads in certain domains
What YouTube seems to be doing in this situation is what televisions or other media have done at one point. Thus, alcohol advertisements, gambling, political advertisements and advertisements for prescription drugs will no longer be able to be displayed on the main page of the service, on the main banner. In fact, the company did, however, include a method by which users could limit the number of advertisements for such products during use.
This decision does not come from a specific event, but it is consistent with the direction in which the company has moved in recent years. Political advertisements have become quite controversial on social media following allegations that state actors could influence elections in other countries through this type of promotion. Then, because YouTube can also be accessed by children or vulnerable people, ads for alcohol, gambling, and strong drugs probably shouldn’t be displayed in such a visible place.
However, this does not mean that YouTube will no longer display such ads on its platform. In fact, all of these types of ads are still allowed to show before the videos on the platform, but there probably a targeting algorithm and the subject of the videos you watch influence the choice of ads that are displayed to be as relevant as possible.
