YouTube Is Cracking Down on Premium Plans Bought With a VPN
Users who bought a premium membership at a cheaper rate using VPNs are being informed of a cancellation.
Google appears to be putting strict measures in place against some of its users as it confirmed that it was cancelling cheap YouTube Premium memberships obtained using a VPN service.
This was also confirmed by some users, who said they received an email and an in-app notification informing them of the cancellation.
YouTube said that it found out that many subscribers were using VPNs to mask their original sign-up country while pretending to be from somewhere else in a bid to buy premium membership at a cheaper rate.
The video streaming giant also said that contrary to popular belief, it can detect when a subscriber is lying about their signal country, and when discovered, the user will be prompted to update their billing information to their current country of residence.
In the U.S., for example, a single-account subscription costs $13.99, while a family plan costs $22.99 per month. This includes ad-free playback, YouTube Music, and background and offline playback for up to six people.
In some other regions, a YouTube Premium subscription can be almost 90% cheaper than the U.S. rates. A typical example is Ukraine, where a single-account subscription costs under $2.50 a month.
Because of this, some users use a VPN and an international payment card to change their locations from places like the U.S. with high Premium prices to other places like Ukraine in a bid to exploit the price difference.
Many have blamed YouTube's price hike for U.S. subscribers, which happened a year ago and brought the price of Premium for individuals from $12 to $14 per month, as the reason why some users resorted to using a VPN.
For now, Google has not made any official statement on this move and has not explicitly mentioned this in YouTube's terms of service. However, users who use a VPN to buy a YouTube Premium membership will only get their membership cancelled but are unlikely to have their accounts blocked or banned.
On a separate note, YouTube is fighting against ad blockers by embedding ads into its videos using a new SSAI strategy.
Emmanuel Oyedeji
