YSK: People are switching their profile pictures to Microsoft’s Clippy in protest of the unethical, immoral, anti-consumer practices by various companies. The movement was started by Louis Rossmann (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Dtmpe9qaQ) on August 7th, 2025.
@6:46 “Clippy’s a symbol that what used to be considered one of the worst annoyances in our life would now not only be welcomed, but for all of his flaws, celebrated as an idol. Because for all of these things that occur right now where there is negative malice of intent, […] Clippy just wanted to help. And if you were to turn him on today, unlike most cloud bullshit, he’d still work.”
Louis hopes for this to be a show of solidarity.
@5:44 “When a company CEO logs into their Slack and sees 10,000 Clippy’s looking back at them, what I hope occurs is that they intuitively understand that they no longer live in a world where they can get away with fucking over the consumer.”
@5:58 “[…] that [people] are alert and they are aware of what is going on, and they are going to politely but firmly push back against it. Every single one of those 10,000 people will be an obstacle to the anti-consumer practices and the anti-ownership practices, and they will no longer be another cog in the assembly line sending us all into a dystopia.”
Why YSK: I was curious about the number of Clippy avatars, and thought other people might be curious too.
@4:28 “Clippy never tried to normalize sex trafficking. He just wanted to help.”
I’m not doing the profile picture thing, sorry. It’s stupid and forces me to commit to one issue at a time.
Instead, I’ll put a clippy in the replies when relevant.
📎💬
YouTubers doing YouTubers thing.
Uhhhh, that’ll show them…?
Probably the biggest problem with this is that you need to read an absolute wall of text or watch a YouTube video to actually understand what’s going on, something that the target audiences are unlikely to do, not to mention other issues like how ignorable it all is.
The target audience are we, the tech literate people who give a damn. It’s then on us to propagate it further to those who are affected, but unaware. Build a critical mass and things will get rolling.
Truth!!
Fighting the global rise of fascism isn’t for the lazy or whinge-prone. If you can’t be bothered to read a single wall covered in writing (how ironic)… get the fuck out of the way, citizen.
I don’t know if the answer is silent protest profile pics. I think a better solution is more people getting into self hosting and ditching big tech reliance.
While I agree, self hosting is not an option for the average person.
I believe big tech must be forced to work for the consumer interests somehow.
One way could be introducing decentralised alternatives, that present a solid competition.
How dare you, sir?
The solution is to complain for a couple of weeks about a platform ON that platform, get it out of your system, and let it fizzle out without making ANY kind of changes, because people generally have the attention span of a goldfish and commitment and follow-through of a dieter with a shopping cart full of ice cream.
Never, ever ask people to accept inconvenience to bring down a tech monopoly because “muh followers!!”
Thanks writing it all out instead of making us watch the video.
For real! I hate to watch video media for things like this. I mean, I’m on Lemmy and not tiktok or YT for a reason…
The transcription with timestamps of the important taking points, chef’s kiss.
Thanks op.
:) happy to help! I appreciate the appreciation
I don’t mean to get off topic but effective synopsis of media is a massive value add. Making ideas cross platform AND cross media types is helpful, not detrimental. Advertisements are your enemy, not viewers.
“When a company CEO logs into their Slack and sees 10,000 Clippy’s looking back at them, what I hope occurs is that they intuitively understand that they no longer live in a world where they can get away with fucking over the consumer.”
Ahh yes. The CEO sees the slactivists’ avatars sand sighs loudly before turning their thoughts back to their yacht and upcoming golf vacation.
I’ll highjack this comment to add my opinion - I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate for the main post.
I see the profile picture as performative (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). I don’t want to fall into a habit of doing performative things and feeling like it’s enough action. I also recognize Clippy is a flawed choice, as one of Microsoft’s mascots and it’s existence as a proto-AI assistant.
All of that said, I found the solidarity in the comment section of the original video comforting. So today, I will perform (and maybe spread just a little more awareness).
I don’t see it just as a performance, but rather a way to find like-minded peopel and build a community that will eventually get things rolling in the right direction. Every movement needs some kind of criical mass to achieve something and a call to action -no matter how miniscule and benign - is a good way of setting things into motion.
It takes a special kind of wishful thinking to think that any CEO is UNAWARE that their customers hate them.
Not a single one thinks any of these decisions are well-received.
They do it because people keep turning RIGHT AROUND and spending their money and attention anyway.
It’s a special kind of Stockholm Syndrome digital slavery because people can LITERALLY just walk away and choose not to.
Yea this is some bonkers wishful thinking. This is basically the Jeremey Clarkson “oh no! Anyway…” meme
The CEO sees the clippys, starts crying and gives everyone a raise
Then everyone claps
Fuck Clippy. Clippy represents Microsoft’s monopolistic practices in the office suite space by using proprietary formats and making sure ODF was less supported.
We should have a different character that annoyingly explains things instead, like Navi, Kaepora Gaebora, or Omochao.
Navi, Kaepora Gaebora, or Omochao.
What you said but for Nintendo and Sega
Can I teach you a lesson?
I’m gonna wear your skin!
Were these people too young in the early 2000s to recognize Clippy for what it was? It was never benign—ChatGPT is exactly what Microsoft always wanted to make, but Clippy was as close as it could get at the time. They are part and parcel of the same thing.
This is like protesting Trump with pictures of George W. Bush.
Fucking
NO.
The thought “well honesty Alberto Gonzalez as AG is like 10 steps up right now…” popped into my head and now I’m sad.
Never thought Donald Rumsfeld would be a step up from Whiskey Gate, but here we are.
Yeah. We only had one once-in-a-lifetime market crash under W instead of… I lost count. Also PATRIOT ACT and wars on Iraq and Afghanistan was… not as bad as the shit that’s going on now, as awful as they were (they also helped lead to the current situation). George W Bush was still one of the worst presidents in US history until Trump came along.
Well, I wouldn’t say “miss” is the right word, either. The whole system has been broken since the founding of the country.
If you could explain how you got to that conclusion I would love to know. Not trying to be rude, just interested in where it’s coming from.
Clippy (actual name Clippit), was an avatar for the Office Assistant User Interface introduced in Office 97. It read the contents of your documents and would pop up and give you advice, and was basically an attempt at an intelligent agent, but 30 years ago.
It wasn’t nearly as sophisticated and invasive as the current bullshit, but that’s largely because the tech to be as sophisticated and invasive as the current bullshit didn’t exist in 1997.
He also says in the video that clippy didn’t read your letter. It did–that’s how it could detect that you were writing one.
Not OP, but I see where he’s coming from. Clippy is still the symbol of a corporation instead of basic human rights like:
- right to own
- right to repair
- right to live a life free of ads in things owned
Something like this would be better. I just grabbed it, I don’t think it’s affiliated with something else:
Predatory software has become so bad that now we have to use the previous generation’s intrusive hated features to protest the new ones.
Wait what is/was wrong with notepad?
They took a utility and turned it into an app.
(M$ took the lightweight text editor that always worked and added bloat to it making it like a cross between the original and wordpad along with adding co-pilot.)
Nothing. If people are protesting invasive bloat with by saying they’d rather have Clippy, I’d rather go back to Notepad.
However, it appears that Windows 11 notepad has fallen prey as well? Maybe then I need a profile pic of a needle and a magnetic plate…
I’m sure this will work just as well as changing out avatars to green helped overthrow the iranian theocracy.
