Where did Webdriver Torso come from?

The account was created on March 7, 2013, and began uploading on September 23, 2013; the real author never came forward to Daily Dot or Guardian reporters.

What does Webdriver Torso mean?

The name likely references Selenium's WebDriver automation tool, though Selenium developer Patrick Lightbody told the Daily Dot his team had no connection to the uploads.

How do you use Webdriver Torso?

People reference it as internet shorthand for unexplained bulk automation online, often citing it alongside Cicada 3301 and shortwave numbers stations when debating whether cryptic content is a puzzle, a spy signal, or routine machine output.

Is Webdriver Torso still popular?

Fresh uploads stopped in 2014 after about eight months of activity, but the channel is still cited as a classic internet mystery in retrospectives by the BBC and The Guardian.

How many videos did Webdriver Torso upload?

The channel produced close to 77,000 clips by May 2014, totalling around 236 hours of footage, with new uploads arriving every 20 seconds or so.

Are there any Webdriver Torso videos that break the pattern?

Two outliers exist: a five-second Eiffel Tower balcony clip titled '00014', and a France-only paid video featuring the Adult Swim cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Why did people think it was a numbers station?

BoingBoing's Enkidu argued the random rectangles and tones mirrored shortwave numbers stations, which once transmitted encrypted one-time-pad messages to spies.

What does 'aqua.flv' mean in the videos?

Every standard upload carries the caption 'aqua.flv' in the bottom-left corner, suggesting an internal filename baked into whatever tool renders the slides, though the uploader never explained it.

Did Selenium make the Webdriver Torso videos?

No. Selenium developer Patrick Lightbody denied any link to the account when contacted by the Daily Dot, even though the channel shares the WebDriver name.

Webdriver Torso

Q: What is Webdriver Torso?

Webdriver Torso is a YouTube channel that uploaded roughly 77,000 cryptic 11-second clips of red and blue rectangles with electronic tones between September 2013 and May 2014.

2013viral videoclassic

Published November 10, 2026

Webdriver Torso is a YouTube channel that quietly uploaded roughly 77,000 cryptic 11-second clips of red and blue rectangles set to electronic tones starting September 23, 2013. New uploads arrived every 20 seconds for eight months, sparking speculation about spy numbers stations, alien contact, and viral marketing until the BBC and The Guardian investigated in May 2014.

mystery memes conspiracy memes youtube culture memes early 2010s memes absurdist humor memes

Overview

Every Webdriver Torso upload follows a tight template: 10 still slides, each showing one red rectangle and one blue rectangle at randomized sizes and positions, paired with a computer-generated tone that shifts pitch between frames1. Clips run roughly 11 seconds, and nearly every one carries the caption 'aqua.flv' in the bottom-left corner, hinting at an internal file name rather than any human-authored title2.

The shape placements, note pitches, and alphanumeric video titles all appear random, but the structure never varies across tens of thousands of clips1. Viewers who click through expecting a punchline find only more rectangles, which is part of why the account drew comparisons to cold-war shortwave broadcasts rather than to normal YouTube content3. Sample uploads such as the September 2013 video 'tmpFmwNPY'8 and a later entry from the same series9 make the repetition obvious at a glance.

Two outliers break the pattern and keep the mystery alive. One titled '00014' is a five-second phone recording of the Eiffel Tower seen from a balcony, ending with a glimpse of the uploader's computer screen5. Another, '0.455442373793', was geoblocked to France, cost 1.99 euros to watch, and contained a clip of the Adult Swim cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force5.

Origin & Background

Platform

YouTube

Date

2013

The YouTube account 'Webdriver Torso' was registered on March 7, 2013, but stayed dormant until the first batch of rectangle videos went live on September 23, 2013 at 14:451. From that day the channel settled into an almost mechanical cadence of nearly 400 uploads every 24 hours, averaging a new clip roughly every 20 seconds, including Christmas Day3.

No human has publicly claimed authorship of the account. The Daily Dot's Brendan O'Connor tried to reach the uploader in April 2014 and received no reply, and The Guardian reported the same silence a week later2. Selenium developer Patrick Lightbody, whose project shares the 'WebDriver' name, told the Daily Dot that his team had no connection to the videos and joked that the clips looked like 'trying to make contact with aliens'3. For this article the creator is treated as unknown; the origin video 'tmpFmwNPY' uploaded on September 23, 2013 remains the earliest confirmed post8.

How It Spread

Wired first flagged the channel on February 7, 2014, inside a roundup of obscure YouTube corners, though the piece offered no theory about why the rectangles existed4. The story stayed quiet for two more months until Daily Dot reporter Brendan O'Connor published a deeper investigation on April 23, 2014, floating the idea that an automation tool such as Selenium's WebDriver might be posting the clips without a human in the loop3.

On April 25, 2014, BoingBoing's Enkidu compared the uploads to cold-war numbers stations: shortwave broadcasts of random digits thought to carry one-time-pad messages to spies in the field6. That framing lit up mainstream outlets. BBC Click presenter Spencer Kelly covered the channel in early May 2014, noting that eight months of uploads amounted to 236 hours of footage and that BBC analysts had downloaded the API data for every clip to look for patterns1. The Guardian followed on May 1, 2014, listing the running theories, which by then included alternate reality games, extraterrestrial contact, espionage, and viral marketing campaigns2. BBC Radio 4's Today programme polled listeners on air about whether the uploader was an advertiser or an alien2. After roughly eight months and close to 80,000 uploads, the account went quiet1.

Timeline

2013-03-07

The Webdriver Torso YouTube account is registered but uploads nothing for over six months.

2013-09-23

First rectangle clip goes live at 14:45, with another nearly identical video uploaded 28 minutes later[1].

2014-02-07

Wired features the channel in a story about underexposed YouTube content[4].

2014-04-23

The Daily Dot speculates that Selenium's WebDriver automation tool could be behind the uploads[3].

2014-04-25

BoingBoing compares the videos to cold-war numbers stations in a widely shared post[6].

2014-05-01