Tangentially related. Youtube web is now, as of the last month, strictly enforcing "referrer header" for embedded videos. Even if you spoof it, it doesn't always work. You can't navigate directly to "youtube.com/embed/<videoid>" to watch something without giving google some direct information.

Since when are public-facing error codes just lies?

"Oh Error 15 something went wrong, tee hee." "Oh Error 153 better try again, (got em, guys!)"

They operated for a while, before finally updating their FAQ stating this is intentional.[1]

[1] https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/171780?hl=en#zippy... " Provide a HTTP Referer header to enable video playback

Our Terms of Service require embedders to provide a HTTP Referer. If this information is missing, viewers attempting to watch embedded YouTube videos will encounter blocked playback and an error screen (“error 153”). These viewers will still be able to click “Watch on YouTube” to view the video on YouTube. Note that directly accessing the embedded player without an enclosing webpage or context (such as accessing it from your web browser's address bar) will typically not have a HTTP Referer and users will encounter the error screen; the embedded player is only intended to be used within an embedded context."

Pretty much all embeds have done this, increasing over the years. Forget discord embeds. They want the tracking. Sometimes they even make me login "to know I'm not a bot"

Damn that's crazy, nothing a simple static redirector in a single js line can't fix. Overall cost to implement this shit : likely thousands hundred k Bypass cost : literally 0 It really is just a way for them to say "we can fuck with you as much as we want and you won't do shit cause what you gonna do ? go somewhere else ?"