Social media networks are optimized for what they call ?engagement? --
that is features that, by their nature, almost invariably lead to
addictive behaviour from their users. Because that is an inseparable
part of the mechanism by which they earn their revenue.
Now the EU regulatory authorities are taking direct aim at these very features of those networks <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/disable-auto-play-and-infinite-scroll-or-risk-massive-fines-eu-tells-meta/>.
Can it succeed in reining them in?
At some point companies will tire of endless EU fines and mandates
and leave the market.
Social media networks are optimized for what they call ?engagement? --
that is features that, by their nature, almost invariably lead to
addictive behaviour from their users. Because that is an inseparable
part of the mechanism by which they earn their revenue.
Now the EU regulatory authorities are taking direct aim at these very features of those networks <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/disable-auto-play-and-infinite-scroll-or-risk-massive-fines-eu-tells-meta/>.
Can it succeed in reining them in?
Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
Social media networks are optimized for what they call ?engagement? --
that is features that, by their nature, almost invariably lead to
addictive behaviour from their users. Because that is an inseparable
part of the mechanism by which they earn their revenue.
Now the EU regulatory authorities are taking direct aim at these very
features of those networks
<https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/disable-auto-play-and-infinite-scroll-or-risk-massive-fines-eu-tells-meta/>.
Can it succeed in reining them in?
At some point companies will tire of endless EU fines and mandates and
leave the market. We have not reached this point yet as companies keep special funds, amounting to a tiny percent of the profits, specifically to pay off bribes and fines when shaken down. But these places get hungrier
each year, and more demanding. Some day soon X will make the first move
then others will follow. Steam.
On Sun, 12 Jul 2026 03:16:00 -0000 (UTC), Oregonian Haruspex wrote:
At some point companies will tire of endless EU fines and mandates
and leave the market.
You mean ?American companies?? Not gonna happen. ?? is huge -- too
much money to be made there, restrictions or no restrictions. They
will find some way to suck it up -- just as they find ways, wherever, possible, to continue doing business in China.
Because to do otherwise is to leave the way open for homegrown
European companies to arise, compliant with EU-based standards, and
maybe even export this novel concept, of the user?s needs coming
before those of the platform owner, to the USA.
None of these American companies wants that to happen, would they?
On 11-July-26 8:44 am, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
Social media networks are optimized for what they call ?engagement? --
that is features that, by their nature, almost invariably lead to
addictive behaviour from their users. Because that is an inseparable
part of the mechanism by which they earn their revenue.
Now the EU regulatory authorities are taking direct aim at these very
features of those networks
<https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/disable-auto-play-and-infinite-scroll-or-risk-massive-fines-eu-tells-meta/>.
Can it succeed in reining them in?
Auto-play has always seemed to me to be a fraud on their
advertisers. And it seems to keep being turned back on.
They can be showing advertisements, and charging for them, when
there's no one there to watch them.
On 11-July-26 8:44 am, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
Social media networks are optimized for what they call ?engagement? --
that is features that, by their nature, almost invariably lead to
addictive behaviour from their users. Because that is an inseparable
part of the mechanism by which they earn their revenue.
Now the EU regulatory authorities are taking direct aim at these very
features of those networks
<https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/disable-auto-play-and-infinite-scroll-or-risk-massive-fines-eu-tells-meta/>.
Can it succeed in reining them in?
Auto-play has always seemed to me to be a fraud on their advertisers.
And it seems to keep being turned back on.
They can be showing advertisements, and charging for them, when there's
no one there to watch them.
Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> wrote:
Auto-play has always seemed to me to be a fraud on their advertisers.
And it seems to keep being turned back on.
They can be showing advertisements, and charging for them, when there's
no one there to watch them.
That's the entire point. They get to charge the advertiser for an "ad-view".
For some reason the advertisters do not seem to recognize (or care)
about the grift.
Of course, the browsers could solve the auto-play problem overnight by disabling all auto-play. But since the largest majority browser is
written and distributed by an advertising company, that is not likely
to happen.
On 2026-07-12, Rich wrote:
Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> wrote:
Auto-play has always seemed to me to be a fraud on their advertisers.
And it seems to keep being turned back on.
They can be showing advertisements, and charging for them, when there's >>> no one there to watch them.
That's the entire point. They get to charge the advertiser for an
"ad-view".
For some reason the advertisters do not seem to recognize (or care)
about the grift.
Of course, the browsers could solve the auto-play problem overnight by
disabling all auto-play. But since the largest majority browser is
written and distributed by an advertising company, that is not likely
to happen.
I think the chief problem might have been how at the same time the implementation also allows for playback to be controlled by
Javascript. So a least a few browsers offer a way to disable autoplay,
yet content might still play anyway?
Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 2026-07-12, Rich wrote:
Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> wrote:
Auto-play has always seemed to me to be a fraud on their advertisers. >>>> And it seems to keep being turned back on.
They can be showing advertisements, and charging for them, when there's >>>> no one there to watch them.
That's the entire point. They get to charge the advertiser for an
"ad-view".
For some reason the advertisters do not seem to recognize (or care)
about the grift.
Of course, the browsers could solve the auto-play problem overnight by
disabling all auto-play. But since the largest majority browser is
written and distributed by an advertising company, that is not likely
to happen.
I think the chief problem might have been how at the same time the
implementation also allows for playback to be controlled by
Javascript. So a least a few browsers offer a way to disable autoplay,
yet content might still play anyway?
Old style pop-up ads also were "controlled by javascript" (it was JS
that even allowed them to be a thing in the first place).
And every browser eventually blocked them all.
If the browser makers actually wanted to block auto-play, then
auto-play would no longer exist.
The advertising company Doubleclick (most call them Google now) is more interested in selling adverts., so of course Chrome will never
implement a true auto-play block.
On 2026-07-13, Rich wrote:
Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 2026-07-12, Rich wrote:
Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> wrote:
Auto-play has always seemed to me to be a fraud on their advertisers. >>>>> And it seems to keep being turned back on.
They can be showing advertisements, and charging for them, when there's >>>>> no one there to watch them.
That's the entire point. They get to charge the advertiser for an
"ad-view".
For some reason the advertisters do not seem to recognize (or care)
about the grift.
Of course, the browsers could solve the auto-play problem overnight by >>>> disabling all auto-play. But since the largest majority browser is
written and distributed by an advertising company, that is not likely >>>> to happen.
I think the chief problem might have been how at the same time the
implementation also allows for playback to be controlled by
Javascript. So a least a few browsers offer a way to disable autoplay,
yet content might still play anyway?
Old style pop-up ads also were "controlled by javascript" (it was JS
that even allowed them to be a thing in the first place).
And every browser eventually blocked them all.
If the browser makers actually wanted to block auto-play, then
auto-play would no longer exist.
The advertising company Doubleclick (most call them Google now) is more
interested in selling adverts., so of course Chrome will never
implement a true auto-play block.
Yeah, you got a point there. Now some projects are more restricted
because they follow an upstream with not so many differences,
but are there projects implementing such a "disable autoplay" feature
on top of existing browser codebases? (And are there upstreams where
that is already a setting that works even in the face of JavaScript?)
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