What does YouTube say when accused of slow loading on Chrome's rival browser?

According to Android Authority , YouTube explained that the issue was related to ad blockers, not browsers, and said it was an effort to "encourage viewers to allow ads."

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"To support the diverse ecosystem of creators around the world and provide access to the content they love on YouTube for billions of users, we encourage viewers who block ads to turn it off to allow ads for the free experience or to use YouTube Premium to avoid ads," the company added. "Users with ad blockers installed may experience limitations regardless of the browser they use."

YouTube essentially says users have to accept a 5-second delay when watching online videos if they don't enable ads or subscribe to Premium.

YouTube has recently begun to take a more aggressive stance against ad blockers. In June 2023, the service began testing a way to prevent users from watching videos if they had an ad blocker enabled. If users ignored these warnings on three videos, they would not be able to watch the videos again until they turned off their ad blockers. Earlier this month, the company began a global effort to crack down on ad blockers, encouraging users to enable ads or pay for Premium.

YouTube's efforts are facing a legal challenge as data protection expert Alexander Hanff has filed a complaint with Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC), arguing that the video service's ad blocker detection system violates users' privacy and is illegal.