This time they started blocking both residential IP addresses and VPNs to discourage yt-dlp, NewPipe etc. From what I noticed, you need to use official website to load cookies and maintain that session to continue watching videos. It’s irritating. I hope they fuck themselves and go out of business.

I agree SimpleX is superior protocol. I use it to share text between my devices. But I’m little bit hesitant to recommend it to friends and family because it is VC funded. Until SimpleX becomes non-profit or alternative implementation of SimpleX protocol starts showing up, I won’t use it as my main IM.