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WEDNESDAY, 5 APRIL 2023

Terms Governing Repeat Watch Confusion

Autoplay restarted the same short video before the viewer identified that the clip had ended.

3 MIN READshort video behavior

Terms Governing Repeat Watch Confusion Effective Upon Third Uninterrupted Clip, Retroactive to the First


Section 1. The Triggering Event

Someone watches the same short video twice because the loop restarts before they realize it. Each clip is easy to leave while the feed removes a natural stopping point. Repeat watch confusion extends the break by one clip.

This is the triggering event. It is small. It happens constantly.

Section 2. Voluntary Conversion

Under these terms, any case of repeat watch confusion caused by autoplay becomes voluntary viewing after the third uninterrupted clip. The viewer has had two opportunities to exit. The third clip constitutes an election.

The viewer did not intend to elect. The feed does not require intent.

Section 3. Session Reclassification

Once three clips have passed, the break is reclassified. It is no longer a break from work or obligation. It is a session. The break becomes a session requiring a separate act of will to close.

The session has no declared end time. The session does not have an end screen. The feed removes clear boundaries between the next clips. The viewer is responsible for providing their own boundary.

Section 4. Responsibility Allocation

The viewer acknowledges that repeat watch confusion is technically distinguishable from engagement. The viewer further acknowledges that this distinction becomes difficult to maintain past the fourth clip.

The platform does not acknowledge this distinction for purposes of any reporting metric.

Section 5. The Irreversibility Clause

Once a break becomes a session, no retroactive reclassification is available. The time was spent as a session. It will be remembered as a session. Characterizing it as a glance that ran long is permitted in conversation but not in personal accounting.

Section 6. Governing Principle

Each clip is easy to leave. The feed removes a natural stopping point. These two facts together produce the conditions for repeat watch confusion. Under these terms, they also produce the session. The distinction between them is the third clip.

TAGSshort video behavior
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