A video suddenly became the focus of attention on YouTube globally in recent days, when this platform displayed video duration up to more than 1.2 million hours, equivalent to about 140 years. This is a number far exceeding all normal limits of YouTube.
The video was posted on January 5 by ShinyWR channel, with the title just a question mark ("?"). The content displayed on the interface made viewers even more curious when the short description, believed to be written in Arabic, had a gloomy tone.
However, what makes the video spread strongly is not the message or image, but the "unreasonable" duration of time displayed on the thumbnail.
In fact, when users click to watch, the video only plays for about 12 hours, the maximum allowed for a normal video on YouTube. The content inside is completely empty: black screen, no sound, no images, no dialogue. This shows that the duration of over 140 years only exists in the external display, instead of reflecting the actual length of the video.
According to technology experts, this is likely the result of intervention or exploitation of errors related to metadata (video description data) or how YouTube API processes timed information. In other words, the "140 years" number may just be a distorted value on the user interface, not affecting the actual video streaming system.
The video being posted is not simply random. Previously, ShinyWR channel had posted many other contents with unusual duration, lasting hundreds of hours, even livestream sessions lasting up to 300 hours but could not be broadcast.
This raises the notion that the channel owner is deliberately testing the limits of the platform or creating a "puzzling game" to attract attention.
On social networks, this phenomenon quickly became a topic of both prank and speculation. Some people think this is just a simple technical experiment, others associate it with conceptual art, virtual reality games (ARG), or even a way to trick algorithms to create a spreading effect.
On YouTube's side, the platform has not yet given a direct response to the video mentioned above. However, according to international technology and media sites, YouTube currently does not allow videos to exceed the technical time limit (about 12 hours).
Therefore, the phenomenon of displaying time lasting hundreds of years is likely related to errors or interference with metadata, only affecting the display interface but not affecting the ability to play real video.
