"Why do websites want to shove autoplaying videos on people's throats so much, what's wrong with playing at any time you want?" Perhaps the websites (website o

"Why do websites want to shove autoplaying videos on people's throats so much, what's wrong with playing at any time you want?" Perhaps the websites (website owners) are not the only ones who are motivated to push for inclusion of autoplaying videos. Some sources suggest ad fraud is one of the major drivers of online advertising.1 Sources also suggest that video works especially well for ad fraud.2,3,4 If there is a shift toward using video for advertising,5 then it makes sense that commercial websites would prefer ads (videos) to be shown (play) to the visitor automatically (autoplay). It stands to reason that commercially-funded browser authors, e.g., Firefox,6 will always want to implement features that cater to its primary stakeholders: commercial websites and the online ad industry. 1 https://digiday.com/media/daily-hourly-fight-digital-ad-fraud-worse-ever/ https://digiday.com/media/daily-hourly-fight-digital-ad-frau... 2 https://digiday.com/media/state-of-video-ad-fraud/ https://digiday.com/media/state-of-video-ad-fraud/ 3 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/in-banner-video-ad-fraud https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/in-banne... 4 http://www.adotas.com/2017/12/video-ad-fraudand-matter/ http://www.adotas.com/2017/12/video-ad-fraudand-matter/ 5 https://digiday.com/media/publishers-pivoting-video-5-charts/ https://digiday.com/media/publishers-pivoting-video-5-charts... 6 https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/041315/how-mozilla-firefox-and-google-chrome-make-money.asp https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/041315/how-m...