Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was murdered yesterday, and graphic clips of his death are circulating like wildfire on social media. Even worse, virtually all social networks now default to autoplaying embedded videos — meaning you can wind up watching Kirk’s death without intending to.
I accidentally came across one of these videos on Facebook and strongly advise against watching or sharing it. If you don’t want to see disturbing clips in your social feed, here’s how to disable it:
How to disable autoplay videos on Facebook (mobile + desktop)
Mobile (Android / iOS):
- Open the Facebook app.
- Tap your profile picture.
- Scroll down to Settings and Privacy. Open Settings.
- Scroll to Preferences > Media (sometimes called Media and Contacts) > Media.
- Under Autoplay in Feed and Stories, select Never.
Desktop (web):
- Click on your profile picture (located at the top right of the screen) > Settings & Privacy > Settings.
- In the left menu, select Preferences (or Media).
- Find Autoplay Animations and flip it to the off position.
How to disable autoplay videos on Bluesky
Mobile & desktop:
- Open the Bluesky app or bluesky.social on the web.
- Go to Settings (gear icon) > Content and Media.
- Uncheck the box next to Autoplay Videos and GIFs.
How to disable autoplay videos on Instagram
Instagram doesn’t let you turn off autoplay completely. You can enable a setting that stops videos from loading automatically on mobile data, which reduces unexpected playback. That said, videos may still play when you scroll through your feed while you’re on Wi-Fi.
Mobile:
- Open Instagram.
- Tap the menu (look for the three lines).
- Scroll down and click Media Quality.
- Click on Use Less Cellular Data and flip it to the on position.
How to disable autoplay videos on X
- Click on your profile picture in the upper-left.
- Select Settings and Privacy.
- Navigate to Accessibility, Display and Languages and then click Data Usage.
- Open the Autoplay menu and select Never.
