Starting today, YouTube is almost unusable on Firefox

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Reports of YouTube becoming extremely slow or freezing in Firefox have prompted complaints that Google is neglecting or even deliberately degrading support for the browser, especially for users with ad blockers or without YouTube Premium. Others note that performance remains normal for them and suggest recent changes in YouTube’s frontend code, poor QA on a small-market-share browser, or general engineering bloat as more likely causes than intentional sabotage. The exchange broadens into concerns about Google’s market power, antitrust scrutiny, browser monocultures, and how much responsibility large platforms have to maintain full compatibility with competing browsers.

Reported YouTube–Firefox Problems

  • Many Firefox users (Linux, Windows, Debian, Arch, macOS ESR) report YouTube becoming extremely slow or freezing, especially with comments, chats, infinite scroll, or Shorts; some see huge CPU/RAM spikes and even tab crashes.
  • Some see a Chrome-promo “use Chrome” interstitial, and odd UI bugs (wrong metadata for the playing video, missing settings text).
  • Others say YouTube works “fine” or unchanged on recent Firefox versions, often on Windows/macOS, sometimes with Premium, uBlock Origin, and various YouTube-tweaking extensions.

Role of Ad Blocking, Premium, Versions

  • Several users suspect the slowdown is tied to YouTube’s anti‑adblock measures; some see “ghost” ad behavior (brief keyframes/black screen, or ad labels with no ad playing).
  • One report: same Firefox install is fast with a Premium account but slow with a non‑Premium account.
  • Some point to older Firefox versions (e.g., ESR, v88, 110, 115, 121) as more affected.

Possible Technical Causes

  • One commenter benchmarked and blames a recent Polymer/desktop_polymer.js change that creates many custom elements and possibly patches core DOM methods, hitting Firefox’s JS engine harder than Chromium’s.
  • Others mention known codec and GPU issues (e.g., VP8/9 vs h264), WebGL performance, and general complexity of modern web specs.
  • A minority argue this could be a Firefox bug or architectural weakness, not a YouTube bug.

Malice vs. Incompetence

  • Many see a pattern of Google services “coincidentally” regressing on Firefox (Gmail, Docs, Flights, Meet, AdSense, printing behavior), calling it de facto sabotage or negligent anti‑competitive behavior.
  • Others invoke Hanlon’s razor: likely under‑tested edge platform with tiny share (~2–5% desktop, far less overall YouTube usage), not an explicit attack.
  • Some note Google’s antitrust losses and say deliberate sabotage now would be risky; others counter that repeated “oops” incidents are indistinguishable from intentional harm.

Antitrust, Mozilla, and Market Power

  • Strong calls to break up Google (search, Chrome, YouTube separation) and enforce antitrust more aggressively in US/EU.
  • Debate over whether Google is keeping Firefox on “life support” via search deals vs. having already undermined it; internal criticism of Mozilla’s management and dependence on Google money.

Workarounds and Alternatives

  • Common mitigations: uBlock Origin, h264ify, Nova YouTube/Enhancer scripts, yt-dlp/tubesync + local playback (e.g., Jellyfin), using Chrome/Brave only for Google sites, or alternative clients/apps.