Hooked

Chapter 7

Mystery

In autumn 2013, a YouTube channel called Webdriver Torso began to attract a lot of attention. Every single one of its unique videos was 11 seconds long, titled ‘aqua’, and comprised solely of red and blue moving triangles and a tone fluctuating in pitch. In the following months, the channel uploaded almost 80,000 of these videos.

Naturally, online enthusiasts gave their all trying to work out what it meant – as several media outlets, like the BBC, speculated, it may have been a secret code for spies, a viral marketing campaign, or even attempts to contact extra-terrestrials.¹ Until the mystery was revealed, the videos went completely viral.

Before we get into why this case generated such buzz, here’s a brainteaser for you – ...