Clippy Campaign: Difference between revisions

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In August 2025, YouTuber {{Wplink|Louis Rossmann}} started a grassroots {{Wplink|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 1997 to 2003.

==Campaign==

==Campaign origins==

~~===Origins===~~

On 7 August 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=7 Aug 2025}}</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=12 Aug 2025}}</ref>

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

===~~Developments~~===

==Developments==

===Incipient stage===

Rossmann later uploaded a clarifying video on 12 August 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 four days later, on 16 August 2025, 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=16 Aug 2025}}</ref>

On 1 September 2025 a fourth video under the title "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcLvXBKE80 THIS is what it means to be a clippy]", was posted by Rossmann. It questioned his followers and gave examples on how individuals could show integrity and push back and against new age anti-ownership practices in their own lives and what the effects of that decision might be. An important point raised in the video was that users don't have to sacrifice anything to be a part of something bigger, because any small actions, when performed all together by many people, add up to significant ~~effects~~.<ref name="fourth Rossmann clippy video">{{Cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcLvXBKE80 | title=THIS is what it means to be a clippy | date=2 Sep 2025}}</ref>

On 1 September 2025 a fourth video under the title "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcLvXBKE80 THIS is what it means to be a clippy]", was posted by Rossmann. It questioned his followers and gave examples on how individuals could show integrity and push back and against new age anti-ownership practices in their own lives and what the effects of that decision might be. An important point raised in the video was that users don't have to sacrifice anything to be a part of something bigger, because any small actions, when performed all together by many people, add up to significant results.<ref name="fourth Rossmann clippy video">{{Cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcLvXBKE80 | title=THIS is what it means to be a clippy | date=2 Sep 2025}}</ref>

===Silhouette series===

In October 2025, Rossmann began uploading green-screen videos in the style of silhouette interviews, which are commonly used outside of news broadcasts to visually represent an anonymous party; in this case, the anonymous party is the collection of editors for Consumer Rights Wiki and members of, or subscribers to, the FULU Foundation.<ref name="first Rossmann silhouette interview">{{Cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot_XQX7di2Y | title=Synology reverses course on requiring branded drives: NOT ENOUGH! | date=9 Oct 2025}}</ref> These videos consist of Rossmann depicted as a featureless silhouette, speaking about a specific company's malpractice, and occasionally holding up a large paperclip against the background, visually representing the vast number of "Clippy" users online.

On 9 October 2025, Rossmann uploaded his first silhouette video, an annunciatory reaction to recent decisions from the company Synology. The video, titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot_XQX7di2Y Synology reverses course on requiring branded drives: NOT ENOUGH!]", begins by dedicating the announcement to restoring consumer rights and the rights of ownership. The core of the video refers to the company formerly requiring users to use only Synology hard drives in their network-attached storage units, a policy enforced by DRM. Synology reversed their decision, but Rossmann points out that it is not enough to simply undo the action; the company has to indicate plainly to its customers that they will not engage in further anti-consumer practices in the future. The video ends with a call to action for members of the Clippy movement, declaring that the fight for consumer rights had moved into a new era, in which companies reverse the detrimental actions which had previously characterized their policies toward their own customers:

<blockquote>If your favorite influencer starts shilling Synology products again after this product update without telling you their full history, let them know Clippy is watching. [''Rossmann's silhouette holds up a large paperclip against the background.'']

We have entered a new stage of consumer rights: the FAFO era, where companies that take part in these practices reverse them. But it's not enough that they reverse them—they must also repent. Clippy demands repentance. I have not seen this repentance, and therefore I am not satisfied.</blockquote>

On 10 October 2025, Rossmann uploaded a second silhouette video, an open letter to Satya Nadella, the current CEO of Microsoft, titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NVtg1tkgSQ Microsoft went too far]". He mentions that Windows 11, the newest version of the company's flagship product, has been redesigned to prohibit setup without logging into a Microsoft account online, even if the user never plans on using any online Microsoft services. It is thus no longer possible to use solely local methods (i.e., methods that do not require connecting to an Internet web server) to set up a computer with Windows 11 installed. He then points out the hypocrisy in their policy regarding the operating system's preceding version, Windows 10, and calls on Nadella to take action to correct the company's missteps:

<blockquote>[''Reading from AlternativeTo'']<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://alternativeto.net/news/2025/10/windows-11-now-blocks-all-microsoft-account-bypasses-during-setup/ | title=Windows 11 removes all bypass methods for Microsoft account setup, removing local accounts | date=7 Oct 2025}}</ref> Microsoft says that removing local only methods prevents skipped configuration steps and ensures devices are properly set up and secure. [''Commentary''] But leaving hundreds of millions of Windows 10 devices without security updates isn't... tell me more!

[''Reading''] This change is part of the company’s broader "Local-only commands removal" initiative, reinforcing that bypassing account creation could lead to incomplete setups or potential security issues. [...]

[''Commentary''] Satya Nadella, here are our demands. Number one: provide security updates to Windows 10 on the same terms for United States customers, the people in the country that made you a $3 trillion company, that you provide them to in the EU. Number two: remove this requirement that people connect to the Internet and sign up for an online account with your system in order to use their local operating system. This is unnecessary and just another way to get more people's data. You have enough of their data.

[''Rossmann's silhouette holds up a large paperclip against the background.''] Clippy would never require an online account to use a word processor or an operating system. Respect the Clippy. He's watching.</blockquote>

Rossmann concludes the video by stating that if Microsoft does not reverse its course by the 16th, then he would hold on the 18th a public event on behalf of the FULU Foundation, where users can get their computers upgraded, learn how to install free software, and try out Linux (a free operating system) for themselves. Rossmann stated that the goal was to encourage people to help other members of their community, learn new ways of keeping their technology safe from viruses, and prevent computers from populating landfills (because many people have to throw out their old computers which are unable to run Windows 11, but replacing Windows with Linux prevents this).

==Why Clippy==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 In August 2025, YouTuber {{Wplink|Louis Rossmann}} started a grassroots {{Wplink|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 1997 to 2003.
-==Campaign==
+==Campaign origins==
-===Origins===
 On 7 August 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=7 Aug 2025}}</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=12 Aug 2025}}</ref>
@@ Line 16: / Line 15: @@
 *Companies can conduct psychological experiments on their customers without informed consent, often without legal repercussions.
-===Developments===
+==Developments==
+===Incipient stage===
 Rossmann later uploaded a clarifying video on 12 August 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 four days later, on 16 August 2025, 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=16 Aug 2025}}</ref>
-On 1 September 2025 a fourth video under the title "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcLvXBKE80 THIS is what it means to be a clippy]", was posted by Rossmann. It questioned his followers and gave examples on how individuals could show integrity and push back and against new age anti-ownership practices in their own lives and what the effects of that decision might be. An important point raised in the video was that users don't have to sacrifice anything to be a part of something bigger, because any small actions, when performed all together by many people, add up to significant effects.<ref name="fourth Rossmann clippy video">{{Cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcLvXBKE80 | title=THIS is what it means to be a clippy | date=2 Sep 2025}}</ref>
+On 1 September 2025 a fourth video under the title "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcLvXBKE80 THIS is what it means to be a clippy]", was posted by Rossmann. It questioned his followers and gave examples on how individuals could show integrity and push back and against new age anti-ownership practices in their own lives and what the effects of that decision might be. An important point raised in the video was that users don't have to sacrifice anything to be a part of something bigger, because any small actions, when performed all together by many people, add up to significant results.<ref name="fourth Rossmann clippy video">{{Cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcLvXBKE80 | title=THIS is what it means to be a clippy | date=2 Sep 2025}}</ref>
+===Silhouette series===
+In October 2025, Rossmann began uploading green-screen videos in the style of silhouette interviews, which are commonly used outside of news broadcasts to visually represent an anonymous party; in this case, the anonymous party is the collection of editors for Consumer Rights Wiki and members of, or subscribers to, the FULU Foundation.<ref name="first Rossmann silhouette interview">{{Cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot_XQX7di2Y | title=Synology reverses course on requiring branded drives: NOT ENOUGH! | date=9 Oct 2025}}</ref> These videos consist of Rossmann depicted as a featureless silhouette, speaking about a specific company's malpractice, and occasionally holding up a large paperclip against the background, visually representing the vast number of "Clippy" users online.
+On 9 October 2025, Rossmann uploaded his first silhouette video, an annunciatory reaction to recent decisions from the company Synology. The video, titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot_XQX7di2Y Synology reverses course on requiring branded drives: NOT ENOUGH!]", begins by dedicating the announcement to restoring consumer rights and the rights of ownership. The core of the video refers to the company formerly requiring users to use only Synology hard drives in their network-attached storage units, a policy enforced by DRM. Synology reversed their decision, but Rossmann points out that it is not enough to simply undo the action; the company has to indicate plainly to its customers that they will not engage in further anti-consumer practices in the future. The video ends with a call to action for members of the Clippy movement, declaring that the fight for consumer rights had moved into a new era, in which companies reverse the detrimental actions which had previously characterized their policies toward their own customers:
+<blockquote>If your favorite influencer starts shilling Synology products again after this product update without telling you their full history, let them know Clippy is watching. [''Rossmann's silhouette holds up a large paperclip against the background.'']
+We have entered a new stage of consumer rights: the FAFO era, where companies that take part in these practices reverse them. But it's not enough that they reverse them—they must also repent. Clippy demands repentance. I have not seen this repentance, and therefore I am not satisfied.</blockquote>
+On 10 October 2025, Rossmann uploaded a second silhouette video, an open letter to Satya Nadella, the current CEO of Microsoft, titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NVtg1tkgSQ Microsoft went too far]". He mentions that Windows 11, the newest version of the company's flagship product, has been redesigned to prohibit setup without logging into a Microsoft account online, even if the user never plans on using any online Microsoft services. It is thus no longer possible to use solely local methods (i.e., methods that do not require connecting to an Internet web server) to set up a computer with Windows 11 installed. He then points out the hypocrisy in their policy regarding the operating system's preceding version, Windows 10, and calls on Nadella to take action to correct the company's missteps:
+<blockquote>[''Reading from AlternativeTo'']<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://alternativeto.net/news/2025/10/windows-11-now-blocks-all-microsoft-account-bypasses-during-setup/ | title=Windows 11 removes all bypass methods for Microsoft account setup, removing local accounts | date=7 Oct 2025}}</ref> Microsoft says that removing local only methods prevents skipped configuration steps and ensures devices are properly set up and secure. [''Commentary''] But leaving hundreds of millions of Windows 10 devices without security updates isn't... tell me more!
+[''Reading''] This change is part of the company’s broader "Local-only commands removal" initiative, reinforcing that bypassing account creation could lead to incomplete setups or potential security issues. [...]
+[''Commentary''] Satya Nadella, here are our demands. Number one: provide security updates to Windows 10 on the same terms for United States customers, the people in the country that made you a $3 trillion company, that you provide them to in the EU. Number two: remove this requirement that people connect to the Internet and sign up for an online account with your system in order to use their local operating system. This is unnecessary and just another way to get more people's data. You have enough of their data.
+[''Rossmann's silhouette holds up a large paperclip against the background.''] Clippy would never require an online account to use a word processor or an operating system. Respect the Clippy. He's watching.</blockquote>
+Rossmann concludes the video by stating that if Microsoft does not reverse its course by the 16th, then he would hold on the 18th a public event on behalf of the FULU Foundation, where users can get their computers upgraded, learn how to install free software, and try out Linux (a free operating system) for themselves. Rossmann stated that the goal was to encourage people to help other members of their community, learn new ways of keeping their technology safe from viruses, and prevent computers from populating landfills (because many people have to throw out their old computers which are unable to run Windows 11, but replacing Windows with Linux prevents this).
 ==Why Clippy==