Microsoft’s browser has three levels of tracking blocking: Basic, Balanced and Strict. When strict mode is selected, the browser implements extremely stringent measures to prevent users from being tracked on all websites, including YouTube. What happened is exactly about this.
Mistake or conscious move?
With this protection, Google’s ability to collect user data and show personalized ads to users is also restricted. As such, the search giant sees this feature as an ad blocker and applies the same sanctions to those who use Edge in Strict mode as it does to ad blockers.
As a result, users cannot watch YouTube videos unless they disable Strict mode or switch to a paid YouTube Premium subscription. Representatives from Google and Microsoft have not yet commented on the situation. Therefore, there is no clear information about whether these events were a mistake or were done consciously.