Blog post offers uBlock Origin filter to kill TechCrunch's autoplay video
A developer published custom filter rules that stop TechCrunch's JW Player video and Connatix ad player from loading, and the post shot up Hacker News.
What to know
- A blogger published specific uBlock Origin (Firefox MV2) filter rules to stop TechCrunch's autoplay video, which keeps playing audio even when the player is visually hidden.
- The autoplay video is served via a JW Player embed alongside a Connatix floating ad player; blocking their scripts prevents the video from loading at all.
- The post reached the Hacker News front page (score 106, 34 comments) and was mirrored across RSS feeds and Mastodon bridge bots within hours.
cornfieldlabs Blog author / filter list creatorTechCrunch Publisher whose site is the subject of the filter
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
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Post reaches Hacker News front page, spreads via RSS/Mastodon mirrors
The post was submitted to Hacker News (reaching score 106 with 34 comments) and automatically mirrored by HN RSS and Mastodon bridge bots within minutes, continuing to circulate through midday.
“Every TechCrunch article autoplays a video in the middle of the post. Hiding it isn’t enough, because the player keeps running in the background.”
— cornfieldlabs, Blog author · source -
If you just want to read the text body of an article, there's plenty third party scripts you can block on Techcrunch through the advanced settings in uBlock Origin:cloudflare.comconnatix.comd34azmi6bxg5fz.cloudfront.netvideos-cloudfront-usp.jwpsrv.comfacebook.netgoogle.comgoogletagmanager.comgstatic.comjwpcdn.comjwplatform.comjwplayer-dualstack.map…
2 more of the top 3 · 11 posts in this stretch
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Disabling JavaScript by default makes this a non-issue on most sites. Just checked TechCrunch and it’s great without it. Likely like the designer intended.On iOS, Brave browser makes toggling JS particularly easy.90% of my mobile web browsing is without JavaScript. It’s much faster, cleaner, safer. And for the occasional website that needs JS, I…
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Last time I tried to manually block some autoplay video with ublock I ended up with invisible video, that still started to play sound, sometime after page loaded. Maintaining filter lists is thankless job, at least looking at ublock github issues tab, where people complain about broken filters few minutes after target page made some changes.
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background
Developer publishes uBlock Origin filter to block TechCrunch autoplay video — cornfieldlabs posts filter rules identifying TechCrunch's JW Player video embed and Connatix floating ad player as the source of autoplaying, hard-to-kill video, with network rules to block loading and cosmetic rules to hide the empty box left behind.
What people are saying 8 voices from 1 site · best of 11 · verbatim
- Nov 3
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I wish there was a setting to make audio and video opt in per site. Most random sites have no business using anything but text and the occasional image plus whatever fancy stylesheets keep their designers busy.
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One issue with Firefox setting is that it assumes too much that you want to disable the audio but don't care about the moving video. I care about the video not autostarting. But when I press play, then I obviously do want audio. Firefox mutes it... So now it requires two or more clicks to properly play
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I know of a very popular newswebsite in my region which somehow works around this: When overscrolling the video window on their site, ALWAYS the video starts to play - I have the option disabled in FF settings, nontheless its not working in this case :-X
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Does that help with "auto"play & PIP thats triggered by scrolling? I have not managed to completely deactivate PIP videos in Firefox settings/about:config.
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In uBlock Origin, I allow everything except 3rd party frames, then I use uMatrix to whitelist acceptable domains and requests. These are the only privacy add-ons I use and they are amazing.
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The first thing I do when I get access to any computer is install uBlock. A friend comes for tech support, first install then anything else.
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I've just stopped visiting websites that make it impossible to read their articles. It has gotten completely ridiculous.
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Firefox's built-in "Block Audio and Video" in Settings -> Autoplay seems to do a good enough job for most sites (with exceptions whenever it breaks something).