Clippy Campaign: Difference between revisions

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In August 2025, YouTuber [[wikipedia:Louis_Rossmann|Louis Rossmann]] started a grassroots [[wikipedia:Solidarity|solidarity]] visibility campaign (tentatively named the '''Clippy Campaign'''), wherein participants changed their profile pictures on social media platforms in protest of unethical practices by corporations. Users changed their profile pictures to a "Clippy", referring to an image of the "Clippit" avatar of [[wikipedia:Office_Assistant|Office Assistant]] as seen in Microsoft Office from 2000 to 2003.

In August 2025, YouTuber [[wikipedia:Louis_Rossmann|Louis Rossmann]] started a grassroots [[wikipedia:Solidarity|solidarity]] visibility campaign (tentatively named the '''Clippy Campaign'''), wherein participants changed their profile pictures on social media platforms in protest of unethical practices by corporations across industries. Users changed their profile pictures to a "Clippy", referring to an image of the "Clippit" avatar of [[wikipedia:Office_Assistant|Office Assistant]] as seen in Microsoft Office from 2000 to 2003.

==Campaign==

===Origins===

On August 7, 2025, YouTuber Louis Rossmann uploaded a video titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Dtmpe9qaQ Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious]" and encouraged his viewers to stand up against unethical practices of technology corporations (and companies in other industries) which violated consumer rights or otherwise proved detrimental to their paying customers. In the video, he suggested that members who join the movement could change their profile pictures on YouTube and other platforms to a Clippy, on the grounds that such an avatar was a fitting symbol, that avatars with a common theme would help participants recognize each other, and that the collective usage of the avatar in great numbers would raise questions among others and potentially draw attention to the movement.<ref name="first rossmann clippy video">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Dtmpe9qaQ |title=Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious |date=2025-08-07}}</ref><ref name="second rossmann clippy video">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkL9vzW7nY0 |title=You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎 |date=2025-08-12}}</ref>

Rossmann ~~later uploaded a clarifying video on~~ the ~~12th titled "[https://youtu.be/SkL9vzW7nY0 You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎]" to elaborate on the meaning~~ of the ~~movement for participants and outsiders, and to~~ call ~~participants~~ to action, ~~offering ways in which they could actively contribute~~ to ~~creating effective results~~ that ~~could counteract or make conspicuous~~ the ~~exploitative~~ and ~~dishonest business practices~~ they ~~are protesting~~. ~~Rossmann stated in~~ the video that the ~~act~~ of ~~changing one~~'~~s profile picture is not the goal~~ of ~~the movement, but~~ a ~~prerequisite~~ for ~~realizing bigger changes; it serves as~~ a ~~simple task~~ that ~~gets users invested in the movement and increases its visibility~~, ~~so that~~ even ~~if a participant~~ is ~~not able~~ to ~~effectuate much change~~ on their ~~own~~, ~~they can make people who are capable of more tangible influence aware of the movement and, utilize their assistance~~.~~<ref name~~=~~"second rossmann clippy video" />~~

Rossmann stated that educating the public and spreading awareness of these issues was the primary motivation behind his call to action, and while winning the "legislative battle" would be a favorable end, it was not an imperative end at the first stage of the campaign.<ref name="first rossmann clippy video" />

The scope of the campaign intersects with the general resistance to anti-ownership practices by companies that have become more common throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, such as denying paying customers the [[right to repair]] the products that they had purchased. In the video, Rossmann offered a non-exhaustive list of grievances that people have faced, as possible reasons for aligning with the campaign, shown below in brief (see ''Examples'' for details):

*Companies can change the terms of a sale ''retroactively'' without legal repercussions.

*Companies can lock users out of a device they already paid for until a novel subscription fee is paid (tantamount to installing ransomware).

*The comments sections of many YouTube channels frequently contain malicious comments that normalize sex trafficking, posted by bot accounts.

*Companies can deny a user's [[right to repair]] something, ''even where it is illegal to do so'', without legal repercussions.

*Companies can conduct psychological experiments on their customers without their consent, without legal repercussions.

===Developments===

~~The scope~~ of the ~~campaign intersects with~~ the ~~general resistance to anti-ownership~~ practices ~~by companies~~ that ~~have become more common throughout~~ the ~~2010s and early 2020s~~, ~~such~~ as ~~denying paying customers~~ the ~~[[right~~ to ~~repair]]~~ the ~~products that they had purchased~~.

Rossmann later uploaded a clarifying video on August 12, 2025 titled "[https://youtu.be/SkL9vzW7nY0 You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎]" to elaborate on the meaning of the movement for participants and outsiders, and to call participants to action, offering ways in which they could actively contribute to creating effective results that could counteract or make conspicuous the exploitative and dishonest business practices they are protesting. Rossmann stated in the video that the act of changing one's profile picture is not the goal of the movement, but a prerequisite for realizing bigger changes; it serves as a simple task that gets users invested in the movement and increases its visibility, so that even if a participant is not able to effectuate much change on their own, they can make people who are capable of more tangible influence aware of the movement and, utilize their assistance.<ref name="second rossmann clippy video" />

Rossmann uploaded a follow-up video ~~on the 16th~~ titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAgghxUw4kc Progress of clippy movement one week in]" in which he remarked on the rapid growth of the movement and thanked participants for actively working and making a difference, and not simply changing their profile pictures without doing anything else.<ref name="third rossmann clippy video">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAgghxUw4kc |title=Progress of clippy movement one week in |date=2025-08-16}}</ref>

Rossmann uploaded a follow-up video four days later titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAgghxUw4kc Progress of clippy movement one week in]" in which he remarked on the rapid growth of the movement and thanked participants for actively working and making a difference, and not simply changing their profile pictures without doing anything else.<ref name="third rossmann clippy video">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAgghxUw4kc |title=Progress of clippy movement one week in |date=2025-08-16}}</ref>

==Why Clippy==

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[...] Clippy wouldn't even read the contents of your letter.</blockquote>

===Impact===

==Impact==

Rossman hopes that the group awareness created by the campaign will allow people to take action more quickly, due to already knowing that others around them are in alignment. Already it has been seen that many users on YouTube and other social media sites have taken part in the campaign. Some are even taking action to further spread word of the movement in hopes it will eventually get the attention of legislation, tech companies, etc. {{Citation needed}}

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[https://youtu.be/MAgghxUw4kc?t=116 Progress of clippy movement one week in 1:56]<blockquote>[A]nd I'm very excited, not just by this, but by all of the emails that I've received from you, where you've told me in your own personal life where you made a different decision to try and make a difference.</blockquote>

===Examples===

Rossmann provided some examples of motivations people might have to join the campaign in his first video:

*Companies can change the terms of a sale ''retroactively'' without legal repercussions. The example offered is [[Philips_Hue_starts_requiring_an_account_for_the_hue_app|Philips Hue changing the terms of service on smart light bulbs]] that were already purchased under different terms, thence requiring users to sign up for an account in order to use the light bulbs.<ref name="philips retroactive terms">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR2j-r3pmng |title=Philips changes terms after the sale: requires data-sharing account to use a light bulb... |date=2023-09-05}}</ref><ref name="philips hue blog">{{Cite web |url=https://hueblog.com/2023/09/21/philips-hue-soon-only-usable-with-account-2/ |title=Philips Hue soon only usable with account |date=2023-09-21}}</ref><ref name="home assistant blog on philips hue">{{Cite web |url=https://community.home-assistant.io/t/philips-hue-will-force-users-to-upload-their-data-to-hue-cloud/617391 |title=Philips Hue will force users to upload their data to Hue cloud |date=2023-09-22}}</ref>

*Companies can lock users out of a device they already paid for until a novel subscription fee is paid (tantamount to ransomware). The example offered is [[Futurehome_Smarthub_Mandatory_Subscription_Fee|Futurehome]], a smart-home company, which pushed out a firmware update that disabled the smart-home devices of every customer; devices could only be re-enabled if the customer signed up for a new subscription that was not previously required.<ref name="futurehome ransomware">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNuZ3BjT7IU |title=Smarthome company goes bankrupt, new owner ransoms everyone's house: $5000 bounty to crack firmware! |date=2025-07-16}}</ref><ref name="xda blog on futurehome">{{Cite web |url=https://www.xda-developers.com/futurehome-important-take-back-control-smart-home/ |title=Futurehome proves why it's more important than ever to take back control of your smart home |date=2025-07-31}}</ref>

*The comments sections of many [[YouTube]] channels frequently contain malicious comments that normalize sex trafficking, posted by bot accounts.<ref name="first rossmann clippy video" /> Massive botnets create autonomous accounts with profile pictures ostensibly featuring attractive or scantily dressed women, and when their channels are viewed, the user is greeted with links to websites that contain adult content, enticing users to fall for phishing scams.<ref name="lon tv blog on sex bots">{{Cite web |url=https://blog.lon.tv/2025/05/20/my-youtube-channels-comment-section-are-infested-by-bots/ |title=My YouTube Channel’s Comment Section is Infested By Bots! |date=2025-05-20}}</ref>. Such comments are extremely pervasive, often showing up just seconds after a video is uploaded, seemingly only ever deleted by the manual review of the owner of the video, rather than by server-side action; their extent is met contrariwise by reports of legitimate comments from real users being completely censored (not being visible to anyone other than the poster of the comment), even including the user who uploaded the video itself. Rossmann points out in the aforementioned video that some of these bot accounts can bypass the filters by using pictures that are not actually of scantily dressed women, but can so appear to be when the image is small, such as when it is beside a comment; only when it is examined more closely, can it be shown to be an image of something else, such as a cat next to some pillows.<ref name="first rossmann clippy video" />

*Companies can deny a user's [[right to repair]] something, ''even where it is illegal to do so'', without legal repercussions. The example offered is [[Cami Research]], which outright stated that because it values profit over users being able to repair products which they already purchased, it does not want customers to be able to repair them, because if they repair the unit they already have, they would not buy a new one.<ref name="cami research violates law">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K1zi66IE0k |title=Cami Research blatantly violates Oregon Right to Repair Law, Oregon DOJ does nothing. |date=2025-06-21}}</ref>

*Companies can conduct psychological experiments on their customers without their consent, without legal repercussions. The example offered is [[Tado]], a company that makes smart thermostats, which added a paywall to their devices, demanding a subscription fee, after customers had already bought their product (where the terms of the sale at the time of purchase indicated that there was no subscription fee). The paywall was actually fake; its purpose was to see how many customers would willingly go along with the additional payments. In essence, the company threatened to remove a service to induce a behavior on their customers.<ref name="tado thermostat experiment">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfAchfFXghc |title=Thermostat maker performs psychological experiments on customers: never buy Tado products |date=2025-02-21}}</ref> This is another example of retroactive amendments to the terms of products and services already sold in completion (see first point above).

==Slogan==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-In August 2025, YouTuber [[wikipedia:Louis_Rossmann|Louis Rossmann]] started a grassroots [[wikipedia:Solidarity|solidarity]] visibility campaign (tentatively named the '''Clippy Campaign'''),  wherein participants changed their profile pictures on social media platforms in protest of unethical practices by corporations. Users changed their profile pictures to a "Clippy", referring to an image of the "Clippit" avatar of [[wikipedia:Office_Assistant|Office Assistant]] as seen in Microsoft Office from 2000 to 2003.
+In August 2025, YouTuber [[wikipedia:Louis_Rossmann|Louis Rossmann]] started a grassroots [[wikipedia:Solidarity|solidarity]] visibility campaign (tentatively named the '''Clippy Campaign'''),  wherein participants changed their profile pictures on social media platforms in protest of unethical practices by corporations across industries. Users changed their profile pictures to a "Clippy", referring to an image of the "Clippit" avatar of [[wikipedia:Office_Assistant|Office Assistant]] as seen in Microsoft Office from 2000 to 2003.
 ==Campaign==
+===Origins===
 On August 7, 2025, YouTuber Louis Rossmann uploaded a video titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Dtmpe9qaQ Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious]" and encouraged his viewers to stand up against unethical practices of technology corporations (and companies in other industries) which violated consumer rights or otherwise proved detrimental to their paying customers. In the video, he suggested that members who join the movement could change their profile pictures on YouTube and other platforms to a Clippy, on the grounds that such an avatar was a fitting symbol, that avatars with a common theme would help participants recognize each other, and that the collective usage of the avatar in great numbers would raise questions among others and potentially draw attention to the movement.<ref name="first rossmann clippy video">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Dtmpe9qaQ |title=Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious |date=2025-08-07}}</ref><ref name="second rossmann clippy video">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkL9vzW7nY0 |title=You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎 |date=2025-08-12}}</ref>
-Rossmann later uploaded a clarifying video on the 12th titled "[https://youtu.be/SkL9vzW7nY0 You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎]" to elaborate on the meaning of the movement for participants and outsiders, and to call participants to action, offering ways in which they could actively contribute to creating effective results that could counteract or make conspicuous the exploitative and dishonest business practices they are protesting. Rossmann stated in the video that the act of changing one's profile picture is not the goal of the movement, but a prerequisite for realizing bigger changes; it serves as a simple task that gets users invested in the movement and increases its visibility, so that even if a participant is not able to effectuate much change on their own, they can make people who are capable of more tangible influence aware of the movement and, utilize their assistance.<ref name="second rossmann clippy video" />
+Rossmann stated that educating the public and spreading awareness of these issues was the primary motivation behind his call to action, and while winning the "legislative battle" would be a favorable end, it was not an imperative end at the first stage of the campaign.<ref name="first rossmann clippy video" />
+The scope of the campaign intersects with the general resistance to anti-ownership practices by companies that have become more common throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, such as denying paying customers the [[right to repair]] the products that they had purchased. In the video, Rossmann offered a non-exhaustive list of grievances that people have faced, as possible reasons for aligning with the campaign, shown below in brief (see ''Examples'' for details):
+*Companies can change the terms of a sale ''retroactively'' without legal repercussions.
+*Companies can lock users out of a device they already paid for until a novel subscription fee is paid (tantamount to installing ransomware).
+*The comments sections of many YouTube channels frequently contain malicious comments that normalize sex trafficking, posted by bot accounts.
+*Companies can deny a user's [[right to repair]] something, ''even where it is illegal to do so'', without legal repercussions.
+*Companies can conduct psychological experiments on their customers without their consent, without legal repercussions.
+===Developments===
-The scope of the campaign intersects with the general resistance to anti-ownership practices by companies that have become more common throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, such as denying paying customers the [[right to repair]] the products that they had purchased.
+Rossmann later uploaded a clarifying video on August 12, 2025 titled "[https://youtu.be/SkL9vzW7nY0 You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎]" to elaborate on the meaning of the movement for participants and outsiders, and to call participants to action, offering ways in which they could actively contribute to creating effective results that could counteract or make conspicuous the exploitative and dishonest business practices they are protesting. Rossmann stated in the video that the act of changing one's profile picture is not the goal of the movement, but a prerequisite for realizing bigger changes; it serves as a simple task that gets users invested in the movement and increases its visibility, so that even if a participant is not able to effectuate much change on their own, they can make people who are capable of more tangible influence aware of the movement and, utilize their assistance.<ref name="second rossmann clippy video" />
-Rossmann uploaded a follow-up video on the 16th titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAgghxUw4kc Progress of clippy movement one week in]" in which he remarked on the rapid growth of the movement and thanked participants for actively working and making a difference, and not simply changing their profile pictures without doing anything else.<ref name="third rossmann clippy video">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAgghxUw4kc |title=Progress of clippy movement one week in |date=2025-08-16}}</ref>
+Rossmann uploaded a follow-up video four days later titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAgghxUw4kc Progress of clippy movement one week in]" in which he remarked on the rapid growth of the movement and thanked participants for actively working and making a difference, and not simply changing their profile pictures without doing anything else.<ref name="third rossmann clippy video">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAgghxUw4kc |title=Progress of clippy movement one week in |date=2025-08-16}}</ref>
 ==Why Clippy==
@@ Line 25: / Line 38: @@
 [...] Clippy wouldn't even read the contents of your letter.</blockquote>
-===Impact===
+==Impact==
 Rossman hopes that the group awareness created by the campaign will allow people to take action more quickly, due to already knowing that others around them are in alignment. Already it has been seen that many users on YouTube and other social media sites have taken part in the campaign. Some are even taking action to further spread word of the movement in hopes it will eventually get the attention of legislation, tech companies, etc. {{Citation needed}}
@@ Line 51: / Line 64: @@
 [https://youtu.be/MAgghxUw4kc?t=116 Progress of clippy movement one week in 1:56]<blockquote>[A]nd I'm very excited, not just by this, but by all of the emails that I've received from you, where you've told me in your own personal life where you made a different decision to try and make a difference.</blockquote>
+===Examples===
+Rossmann provided some examples of motivations people might have to join the campaign in his first video:
+*Companies can change the terms of a sale ''retroactively'' without legal repercussions. The example offered is [[Philips_Hue_starts_requiring_an_account_for_the_hue_app|Philips Hue changing the terms of service on smart light bulbs]] that were already purchased under different terms, thence requiring users to sign up for an account in order to use the light bulbs.<ref name="philips retroactive terms">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR2j-r3pmng |title=Philips changes terms after the sale: requires data-sharing account to use a light bulb... |date=2023-09-05}}</ref><ref name="philips hue blog">{{Cite web |url=https://hueblog.com/2023/09/21/philips-hue-soon-only-usable-with-account-2/ |title=Philips Hue soon only usable with account |date=2023-09-21}}</ref><ref name="home assistant blog on philips hue">{{Cite web |url=https://community.home-assistant.io/t/philips-hue-will-force-users-to-upload-their-data-to-hue-cloud/617391 |title=Philips Hue will force users to upload their data to Hue cloud |date=2023-09-22}}</ref>
+*Companies can lock users out of a device they already paid for until a novel subscription fee is paid (tantamount to ransomware). The example offered is [[Futurehome_Smarthub_Mandatory_Subscription_Fee|Futurehome]], a smart-home company, which pushed out a firmware update that disabled the smart-home devices of every customer; devices could only be re-enabled if the customer signed up for a new subscription that was not previously required.<ref name="futurehome ransomware">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNuZ3BjT7IU |title=Smarthome company goes bankrupt, new owner ransoms everyone's house: $5000 bounty to crack firmware! |date=2025-07-16}}</ref><ref name="xda blog on futurehome">{{Cite web |url=https://www.xda-developers.com/futurehome-important-take-back-control-smart-home/ |title=Futurehome proves why it's more important than ever to take back control of your smart home |date=2025-07-31}}</ref>
+*The comments sections of many [[YouTube]] channels frequently contain malicious comments that normalize sex trafficking, posted by bot accounts.<ref name="first rossmann clippy video" /> Massive botnets create autonomous accounts with profile pictures ostensibly featuring attractive or scantily dressed women, and when their channels are viewed, the user is greeted with links to websites that contain adult content, enticing users to fall for phishing scams.<ref name="lon tv blog on sex bots">{{Cite web |url=https://blog.lon.tv/2025/05/20/my-youtube-channels-comment-section-are-infested-by-bots/ |title=My YouTube Channel’s Comment Section is Infested By Bots! |date=2025-05-20}}</ref>. Such comments are extremely pervasive, often showing up just seconds after a video is uploaded, seemingly only ever deleted by the manual review of the owner of the video, rather than by server-side action; their extent is met contrariwise by reports of legitimate comments from real users being completely censored (not being visible to anyone other than the poster of the comment), even including the user who uploaded the video itself. Rossmann points out in the aforementioned video that some of these bot accounts can bypass the filters by using pictures that are not actually of scantily dressed women, but can so appear to be when the image is small, such as when it is beside a comment; only when it is examined more closely, can it be shown to be an image of something else, such as a cat next to some pillows.<ref name="first rossmann clippy video" />
+*Companies can deny a user's [[right to repair]] something, ''even where it is illegal to do so'', without legal repercussions. The example offered is [[Cami Research]], which outright stated that because it values profit over users being able to repair products which they already purchased, it does not want customers to be able to repair them, because if they repair the unit they already have, they would not buy a new one.<ref name="cami research violates law">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K1zi66IE0k |title=Cami Research blatantly violates Oregon Right to Repair Law, Oregon DOJ does nothing. |date=2025-06-21}}</ref>
+*Companies can conduct psychological experiments on their customers without their consent, without legal repercussions. The example offered is [[Tado]], a company that makes smart thermostats, which added a paywall to their devices, demanding a subscription fee, after customers had already bought their product (where the terms of the sale at the time of purchase indicated that there was no subscription fee). The paywall was actually fake; its purpose was to see how many customers would willingly go along with the additional payments. In essence, the company threatened to remove a service to induce a behavior on their customers.<ref name="tado thermostat experiment">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfAchfFXghc |title=Thermostat maker performs psychological experiments on customers: never buy Tado products |date=2025-02-21}}</ref> This is another example of retroactive amendments to the terms of products and services already sold in completion (see first point above).
 ==Slogan==