Korean YouTube users bitter over crackdown on 'digital asylum' Premium accounts

YouTube has begun cracking down on Premium subscribers in Korea who signed up in cheaper countries using a VPN.

A 3D-printed YouTube icon is seen in front of a YouTube logo in this illustration taken October 25, 2017. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

YouTube has banned subscribers from pretending to access the service from other countries for better deals, a ploy so prevalent in Korea that it earned monikers like "digital asylum" in online communities.

The U.S. streaming giant has begun cracking down on Korean subscribers who used a virtual private network (VPN) to purchase their Premium subscriptions in countries such as Turkey, Ukraine and India, where it is cheaper.

Local YouTube Premium users have started receiving notifications that their memberships have been canceled due to a discrepancy between the country they subscribed in and their actual streaming location.

If a user does not access the streaming service from the country of subscription for six months, the platform sends out a warning that their membership has been temporarily halted and will automatically be terminated if they fail to rectify the inconsistency within a certain time period.

A YouTube Korea spokesperson confirmed the matter to the Korea JoongAng Daily on Tuesday.

"To provide the most accurate plans and offers available, we have systems in place to determine the countries of our users," YouTube said in a statement. "In instances where the sign-up 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."

Users are free to subscribe to the Premium tier again from the accurate location even after their membership is terminated, the spokesperson added.

The trick exploits a loophole resulting from YouTube charging differing subscription rates by country, with users logging on through a VPN to subscribe in a country where Premium is offered at a lower price.

Korean users faced a 43 percent price hike in December 2023 to 14,900 won ($10.74) for its Premium tier. However, in countries such as India, Turkey, Egypt, the Philippines, Vietnam, Ukraine and Argentina, the monthly fee costs less than $3.60.

India has been one of the go-to countries for subversive Korean subscribers as it only costs 129 rupees, or $1.55, monthly to utilize the Premium handle there.

Some users commented online that they received a warning that their account will be terminated. One user claimed that not only his YouTube Premium membership but his Google account has been suspended.

“I received the notice this morning so I thought only my Premium membership was canceled, but after checking now I think my entire Google account is blocked,” the poster wrote. “I can no longer access all of the games and sites that I linked my Google ID to. It looks like I’m going to lose all the data that I stored in Google Drive as well.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]