Sen Josh Hawley wants to ban infinite scroll and autoplay videos on social media.

[Vic]

So the Republican President tweets about a movie he's never seen and didn't know anything about and gets it shut down, effectively censoring art. A week later, a Republican Senator demands regulating the internet to combat "social media addiction."

So much for the Republicans' professed love for small government and free speech.

 

[brycejones]

So the Republican President tweets about a movie he's never seen and didn't know anything about and gets it shut down, effectively censoring art. A week later, a Republican Senator demands regulating the internet to combat "social media addiction."

So much for the Republicans' professed love for small government and free speech.

Now you have called into question their morals. They are forced to support Trump even more now.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I'd be fine with banning autoplay videos...if I want to watch the content, I can click "Play."

I'm not. I like to watch or listen to podcasts or watch vids. Sometimes I listen as I go to sleep so "click play" doesn't work. Why should this or any other person insert themselves into that process? There is no good reason based on any sound logic, just "he getting his".

 

[senseamp]

Big tech has been too soft on the GOP for far too long, and Republicans are getting brazen. Tech should be funding PACs to go after those politicians who attack them, same as big oil or big pharma. Those $5B that Facebook spent on settlement would be enough to send every politician in the country shaking in their boots.

 

[BoomerD]

I'm not. I like to watch or listen to podcasts or watch vids. Sometimes I listen as I go to sleep so "click play" doesn't work. Why should this or any other person insert themselves into that process? There is no good reason based on any sound logic, just "he getting his".

Because, for me, it's a fucking PITA when I click on a site, generally news something, and their video starts playing. I almost NEVER want to see a vid of news...I'd much rather read the story. Just make "autoplay" optional...that way we can both have what we want.

 

[Jhhnn]

I'd be fine with banning autoplay videos...if I want to watch the content, I can click "Play."

Agreed. I often have several tabs & windows open. I really hate the vids that start playing again on their own after I go away...

 

[darkswordsman17]

Agreed. I often have several tabs & windows open. I really hate the vids that start playing again on their own after I go away...

I think Google is supposed to do exactly that in an update to Chrome sometime in the fairly near future. Both them and Firefox have been gradually blocking more autoplay content but they still let quite a bit of "legitimate" sites (like YouTube and I think news websites) get away with autoplay. I think Google announced Chrome would block all autoplay (but a toggle can probably override it, like for instance for YouTube) content in the future.

I'm not sure if its any of my addons or what, but I haven't been having that specific thing happen lately (it used to on news and stuff like CNet and Yahoo where they do that popup video player if you scroll down past the video and it'd start playing again). I think Yahoo actually pauses whatever video if you scroll past it now (sometimes they'll have an article with a bunch of videos embedded in it like from NFL Network, and it'll autoplay when you scroll down and the video becomes the focal point but then will pause if you scroll past it).

I agree the default should not be autoplay (and I don't even mind when Netflix overrides me having turned it on to go "hey are you still watching?" although I think they only do that after like hours these days; Hulu used to as well but now I think they just let the toggle do its thing but the default is autoplay), but I don't think there should be legislation mandating it.

I too wish that all sites with video content gave you control over the quality settings (i.e. resolution and other), as well as having other options (I really wish YouTube would have one for streaming just the audio as there's lots of podcasts and music and other stuff where its wasting lots of bandwidth streaming a static picture like a billion times for the length of the content; I wish we could independently adjust the audio setting so we could set it to be high but the video resolution lower since I'd prioritize audio quality for a good amount of content on there). But again, I don't think it should be legislated.