Claim of YouTube ads that restart if user looks away is satire | Fact check
The claim: YouTube ads restart if the user looks away
A June 14 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes what appears to be a screenshot showing a YouTube video with a message on the screen.
“Please maintain eye contact for the duration of the ad,” the message reads. “Since you looked away, you’ll need to rewatch from the beginning.”
The caption says, "This is a Black Mirror episode," referencing the "Twilight Zone"-esque Netflix series that delves into techno-paranoia.
The post was liked more than 13,000 times in 10 days. Other versions of the claim spread widely on Threads and X, formerly Twitter.
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Our rating: False
The claim originated from a social media user who posts satirical hypothetical products for various companies. There is no evidence YouTube ads have eye-tracking capability.
Claim originated with page that posts 'satirical app designs'
There is no mention of any such feature on YouTube’s website.
The image included in the Instagram post first appeared on accounts for social media user Soren Iverson, who describes his work as satirical on his website and in an X post that described his "satirical app designs."
Some of his previous hypothetical concepts include a Spotify feature to update an artist’s image with their most recent mugshot, which came after Justin Timberlake’s arrest on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, as well as a Rotten Tomatoes “sob score” and a LinkedIn unemployment streak tracker.
The claim is an example of what could be called "stolen satire," where content created as satire and presented that way originally is captured via screenshot and reposted in a way that makes it appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.
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YouTube declined to provide an on-the-record comment about the claim. USA TODAY reached out to users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Lead Stories, Snopes and Reuters also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
Soren Iverson, accessed June 20, X account search
YouTube, accessed June 20, News and Events
Soren Iverson, July 28, 2023, X post
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, YouTube ads do not have eye-tracking software | Fact check
