Draft:Clippy Campaign

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Online consumer rights movement

The Clippy Campaign (name coined by the user Wiretransfer on Consumer Rights Wiki) is an anti AI and Big Tech movement started by the YouTuber, Louis Rossmann on August 7, 2025. The campaign uses Clippy or Clippit,^[1] the mascot of Office Assistant, as their symbol of rebellion.

Louis Rossmann

Along with being a YouTuber, Rossmann is also an electronics technician and consumer rights activist. He has used his platform to start multiple movements before, including founding the Repair Preservation Group,^[2][3] which advocates for users right-to-repair. It was initially started due to Apple's refusal to repair some devices in favor of forcing the consumer to just buy a new one, but has since expanded to many other companies and products. He also founded the Consumer Rights Wiki (formerly known as the Consumer Action Taskforce Wiki) and the Rossmann Repair Group.^[4][5][6]

Why

Why Start The Movement?

Rossmann was fed up with the data stealing and forced AI integration that many big technology companies have been implementing. So he thought up the idea for a new movement. Although his previous movements have made real world change, this is seemingly the first that has become somewhat mainstream online and escaped out of Rossmann's fandom and into other online spaces. It gained mass popularity in the span of a week.^[7]In his initial video on the campaign, he makes a comparison between the Sons of the Harpy in the Game of Thrones and the Clippy Campaign^[8] by saying, "...there's this Sons of the Harpy in Season 5, they were these people who wore masks and they pushed back against the new regime [...] and the purpose of the mask was to let the leaders know that when you see people with this mask, we are against you." He then goes on to talk about how that same idea is applicable to people changing their profile images to Clippy, with Clippy being the mask and the campaign being the Sons of the Harpy.

Why Clippy?

Although in 1996 when Clippy was made and wasn't very useful; often making errors, popping up at inconvenient times, and being a nuisance in general^[9][10], he didn't take user data. He was simply there to assist, and nothing more. No paywall, no subscription; and although it felt somewhat invasive at the time to have him pop up every time you wanted to write a letter, he didn't actually read or store information on what you were writing. Nowadays, AI assistants are a common occurrence, but have gotten morally worse. There is evidence that says many big companies GenAIs are taking user data.^[11][12][13] So, Clippy, as a benevolent and nostalgic helper, was almost the natural choice as a mascot for the movement. As quoted from Louis Rossmann in his video Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious, "...unlike Facebook who is trying to profit off of young girls that feel suicidal, Clippy simply wanted to help. He might have been annoying, but he just wanted to help. There were no ulterior motives. If you told Clippy you were having a bad day, he wasn't going to use that information to try and figure out which advertiser to sell you to. Nor was he trying to steal your personal data to get you to purchase other Microsoft products. He had no ulterior motives, he was simply there to help."

The Impact So Far

Although no changes in law or terms of service have been made due to the movement yet, many are partaking in the trend of making Clippy their profile picture on many platforms (mainly YouTube), but also TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify.^[14] Many videos have been made to help spread word of the movement, and even some articles such as this one have been made for the same purpose. Rossmann also advised in his second Clippy Campaign related video that he encourages users to do these things and find ways to make the movement grab the attention of big tech organizations.^[7]

References

1. "Dickinson College Library & Information Services". lis.dickinson.edu. Archived from the original on 2007-02-12. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
2. "Repair Preservation Group - Preserving Repair for Everyone, Everywhere". fighttorepair.org. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
3. "REPAIR PRESERVATION GROUP | Benevity Causes". causes.benevity.org. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
4. Gault, Jason Koebler and Matthew (2018-10-19). "DHS Seized Aftermarket Apple Laptop Batteries From Independent Repair Expert Louis Rossman". VICE. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
5. "Data Recovery Austin | [phone] | Rossmann Repair Group". Retrieved 2025-08-15.
6. By (2025-06-09). "Texas' Right To Repair Bill Is A Signature Away From Becoming Law". Hackaday. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
7. Louis Rossmann (2025-08-11). You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎. Retrieved 2025-08-15 – via YouTube.
8. Louis Rossmann (2025-08-07). Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious. Retrieved 2025-08-15 – via YouTube.
9. "The Tragic Life of Clippy, the World's Most Hated Virtual Assistant". Mental Floss. 2017-09-28. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
10. Cain, Abigail (2017-09-15). "The Life and Death of Microsoft Clippy, the Paper Clip the World Loved to Hate". Artsy. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
11. London, University College. "AI web browser assistants raise serious privacy concerns". techxplore.com. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
12. Vekaria, Yash; Aurelio Loris Canino; Levitsky, Jonathan; Ciechonski, Alex; Callejo, Patricia; Anna Maria Mandalari; Shafiq, Zubair (2025). "Big Help or Big Brother? Auditing Tracking, Profiling, and Personalization in Generative AI Assistants". arXiv:2503.16586 [cs.HC].
13. "ChatGPT, OpenAI, and 8 other AI assistants track users' data". www.cryptopolitan.com. Retrieved 2025-08-15.
14. Weedston, Lindsey (2025-08-12). "Clippy the paperclip is taking over profile pics across the internet in protest of big tech". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2025-08-15.