In what many users are calling the latest move in its ongoing battle against ad blockers, YouTube is increasingly displaying missing comments and sometimes even video descriptions for users who have ad-blocking software enabled on their browsers. The odd behaviour – comments sections replaced with a message stating “Comments are turned off” – has been reported across multiple devices and browsers, raising concerns about whether YouTube is intentionally stripping features for ad-block users.
How the experience is changing for viewers
Over the past week, viewers on forums such as Reddit and X have noticed that every video they load shows that comments are disabled, even on videos that normally have active discussions. In many cases, refreshing the page restores the comments, and in others, turning off an ad blocker brings back both comments and video descriptions that had been hidden. The widespread reports span browsers such as Chrome, Edge, Brave and more, with users quickly drawing links to the use of ad-blocking extensions.
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For typical users, comments and descriptions aren’t just nice extras – they provide context, feedback and interaction with the community. Seeing them disappear alongside ad blockers has led many to suspect that YouTube may be experimenting with feature suppression as an indirect tactic to discourage ad blocker use.
Recommended VideosThis development follows a broader pattern of YouTube attempting to curtail ad blocking in various ways over the past few years. Past reports have documented YouTube experimenting with blocking video playback, slowing down content loading, or displaying in-platform messaging if an ad blocker is detected.
Why this matters beyond minor glitches
While feature bugs are common on large platforms, the scale and consistency of these reports – affecting tens of thousands of users across platforms – has led observers to view the behaviour as more than a simple bug. Comments and descriptions are core parts of the YouTube experience; their sudden disappearance undermines the platform’s role as a community space.
YouTube’s decision to hide dislikes has come under fire. Angie Yeoh/Shutterstock / YouTube
Users have reacted with frustration, noting that this trade-off – ads or lose key features – puts them in a difficult spot. For privacy-minded viewers who rely on ad blockers across the web, this creates a tension between wanting a clean, fast experience and accessing the full YouTube feature set.
Content creators are affected too. Comments are a primary engagement metric, used to gauge audience response and build community. If a significant portion of viewers can’t see or post comments due to ad blocker detection, creators may see meaningful dips in engagement and feedback loops.
How users are responding
At present, there’s no official confirmation from YouTube on whether the comment removal behaviour is intentional, a test, or simply a bug tied to recent frontend changes. In the meantime, users have identified a couple of workarounds: refreshing the video page or disabling ad-blocking extensions – both of which often restore full UI elements.
Some people have speculated that this could be another piece in YouTube’s war on ad blockers, a long-running struggle between the platform and users who prefer a non-ad experience without paying for YouTube Premium. Critics argue that heavy handed tactics like feature removal could backfire, pushing some users toward alternative video platforms or prompting debates about fairness and user rights.
What’s next
For now, the safest assumption is that YouTube is still testing how far it can go in nudging users toward its monetized ecosystem without completely blocking access to content. Whether this behaviour becomes permanent, is rolled back, or evolves into another form of anti-ad-block enforcement remains to be seen.
Users who depend on comments and descriptions – either for community engagement or to better understand videos they watch – will want to monitor how this issue progresses, as it reflects a broader tension between free platform usage and monetization strategies.