YouTube cancels premium subscriptions taken out via VPN
Users were able to subscribe to YouTube Premium cheaply via VPN by moving to Ghana, for example. But now Google is taking action against such subscriptions.
Many YouTube users will soon lose access to their low-cost Premium subscription.
(Image: Shutterstock.com/photosince)
Google is currently canceling YouTube Premium subscribers who have taken out their membership via VPN. This is shown by numerous reports from German and international users on social media. YouTube subscriptions taken out in this way are therefore coming to an end - anyone wishing to extend their subscription should do so using a local IP address.
With a VPN, users can simulate a different place of residence when taking out a subscription. This can be advantageous if significantly lower prices are offered in other countries. Many German users have subscribed to YouTube Premium in Ukraine, Ghana, Turkey or Pakistan, for example, as comments on the deals aggregator Mydealz show. Instead of paying 13 euros per month, they sometimes paid less than 2 euros per month.
This has worked for many users for months without any problems. Now, however, Google has apparently identified users who have used the trick to browse from their actual place of residence. "We believe that you did not enter your actual country of residence when you signed up," reads the email, which was published by Googlewatchblog and others. If you want to remain a subscriber, you have to register again - but this time at full price.
YouTube Lite for 6 euros
YouTube Premium costs 13 euros per month as standard. For this, you can watch YouTube without ads, save content offline and access YouTube Music. However, a Lite version is currently offered in Germany for 6 euros per month, which only removes advertising from videos and is therefore likely to represent better value for money for many users.
YouTube has been taking rigorous action against other ways of excluding advertising for several months: In the duel with ad blockers, the Google subsidiary is in a race. According to a report by SponsorBlock, Google has recently started to inject advertising on the server side, making it untouchable for ad blockers. When asked by heise online, Google did not wish to comment on this report.
(dahe)
