YouTube is canceling Premium subscriptions bought using spoofed locations

If you used a virtual private network (VPN) to purchase a YouTube Premium in a country where it’s cheaper, your subscription might be on the chopping block. Over the past few days, several people who’ve used this trick reported having their subscriptions automatically canceled, as reported earlier by Android Police.

The workaround involves using a VPN to change your location to a country where YouTube Premium is offered at a lower price. For example, YouTube Premium costs $13.99 per month in the US for ad-free access to videos, YouTube Music, and offline downloads, but just $1.05 per month (869 ARS) in Argentina. But now, it looks like YouTube is cracking down on subscribers who don’t actually live in these countries.

In a statement to The Verge, YouTube spokesperson Paul Pennington says the company has “systems in place” to determine the locations of its users. “In instances where the signup country does not match where the user is accessing YouTube, we’re asking members to update their billing information to their current country of residence,” Pennington says. He doesn’t say whether YouTube has started automatically canceling subscriptions using the spoofed locations, though.

Given that YouTube has already started cracking down on ad blockers, it’s not surprising to see the platform going after cheaper Premium subscriptions, too.