The video started playing and then followed you down the page

This is less a set of instructions about autoplay video than an argument, and it is worth saying so at the start.

Autoplay is an accounting decision

Video advertising is sold at higher rates than static display, and an automatically played video generates the same counted impression as a chosen one. Industry viewability standards define a view in terms of visible area and elapsed time rather than in terms of anybody wanting it. A muted video that plays for a few seconds in the corner of a screen therefore satisfies the definition without satisfying anyone.

That is the whole economic explanation, and it is why autoplay appears on pages whose subject has nothing to do with video. The publisher is responding to a measurement standard, which is a more fixable problem than a moral failing would be.

The floating player is a response to scrolling

When readers scroll past a video, the counted view ends, so the player detaches and follows the reader down the page to keep it alive. The close button on those players is frequently small, delayed or positioned where a thumb will not naturally reach. On mobile the floating player also occupies a meaningful share of a small screen, which is a direct cost to the reading experience.

Three clicks later, some players re-appear on subsequent pages of the same site, since the state is reset by navigation. It is an unusually literal example of an interface pursuing a reader who is trying to leave.

Sound is the part with rules

Browsers now block audio autoplay by default in most cases, because unexpected sound was the single most complained-about behaviour on the web. The workaround is to autoplay muted and offer a prominent unmute control, which is technically compliant and preserves the counted play. Some sites unmute after a user interacts with the page in any way, since the browser then treats the interaction as consent.

That is why a video sometimes starts talking after you click something entirely unrelated on the page. It is permitted behaviour under the current rules and is a fair example of a rule being satisfied rather than met.

The performance cost is not small

Video decoding, even of a muted clip nobody is watching, uses processor time, memory and battery on the reader's device. On mobile data it also consumes an allowance, which matters considerably for anyone on a metered connection. Multiple autoplay players on a single page is common, and it is the usual explanation for a fan spinning up while reading text.

Preloading compounds it, since video assets are fetched before any decision to play has been made.

The costs fall on the reader's hardware and connection, which is the same externality pattern as packaging and self-checkout.

What you can turn off

Most browsers offer a site-level setting to block autoplay, and some block it globally with an exception list. Reduced-motion settings at the operating system level are honoured by some sites and ignored by many, which is a genuine accessibility failure. Data saver modes frequently disable video preloading, which addresses the bandwidth cost even where the player still appears.

Read the terms and there it is: reader mode removes the entire layout and with it the video, which remains the most complete available answer. Content blockers stop most of it and take a position in a long-running argument about how publishing is funded.

If a charge looks wrong, the boring route — written complaint, then the ombudsman or regulator — still works better than a review.

The argument on the other side

Publishers face falling display rates and rising costs, and video advertising is one of the few areas where rates have held up. A site producing genuine journalism has to fund it somehow, and readers have consistently declined to pay directly at scale. That does not make an unrequested floating video acceptable, and it does explain why it keeps appearing on sites you otherwise respect.

Subscriptions, memberships and direct support are the alternatives, and they work for a minority of publications rather than for most. Being annoyed at the format and supporting the publication are entirely compatible positions, which is worth saying in a publication like this one.

The takeaway

Turn on the browser autoplay block, and use reader mode for anything long.

It is not you being fussy. It is genuinely badly made.