Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious
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https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/a-time-for-truth-oversight-of-metas-foreign-relations-and-representations-to-the-united-states-c...

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.”

  • cub Gucci@lemmy.today
    5·
    9 months ago

    When a company CEO logs into their Slack and sees 10,000 Clippy’s

    Software engineers will do anything but unionize

    • boatswain@infosec.pub
      4·
      9 months ago

      This right here. Unions are a much more potent way to tell management “that anti-consumer idea is bullshit and we won’t do it.”

      I’ve been tech conferencing all week and I’ve already seen two talks about unionizing tech workers. Maybe the tide is turning?

    • CosmicTurtle0 [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Honestly…yeah. I’ve been trying to push that boulder but I can’t be the only one.

      Very few people are willing to break rank because the system is working for them for now.

  • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    This comment section is full of god damn losers who enjoy losing, and want to use any given opportunity to help a little bit to instead sing the praises of their enemies.

    Maybe it’s not just the evil maga cunts and the spineless democrats alone who made this mess. Maybe it’s you defeatist whining pussies in this comment section, too.

    The correct energy is “fuck yeah, what other ideas and movements can this fit into, support, and help”. Get on board with that, whether you Clippy or not.

    • LilDumpy@lemmy.world
      2·
      9 months ago

      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.

  • hperrin@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    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.

  • nomnomdeplume@lemmy.world
    1·
    9 months ago

    “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.

  • OrteilGenou@lemmy.world
    1·
    9 months ago

    “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.”

    No they won’t, they will understand that they need to make sure they’re improving the PR for their shitty practices and have robust RnD in place to make sure their long-term shitty practice plans are evolving

    • mmmm@sopuli.xyz
      0·
      9 months ago

      I concur - I agree with the sentiment, but this seems so… pointless. Remember the Reddit blackouts? Some people migrated to Lemmy but I doubt the number of new members ever increased in the same proportion as it did in those days, some horrible mods were sacked (like u/awkwardtheturtle from r/art) and some subs were closed by their mods, but Reddit just reinstantiated those subs to another admins (r/unexpected on the top of my head at the moment) and… shit’s even worse than ever and they keep earning their profit as usual, if not even more. In the end the “protests” and blackouts did absolutely nothing for them.

      • Suspiciousbrowsing@kbin.melroy.org
        1·
        9 months ago

        I disagree, without the protests I would still be using Reddit. Just because it doesn’t completely collapse the system doesn’t mean it’s been ineffective

  • Commiunism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    1·
    9 months ago

    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.

    • some_random_nick@lemmy.world
      1·
      9 months ago

      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.

    • otter@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      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.

  • whelk@retrolemmy.com
    1·
    9 months ago

    People whenever something like this (particularly protests that aren’t violent uprisings) happens: “It’s not a sole and immediate solution, so it’s pointless. Also I’m not going to provide a realistic sole and immediate solution that I’m personally willing to act on or lead. Might as well shut up and go quietly.”

    I get that it’s frustrating, but stop trying to slam the door on people trying to build up an environment of resistance, solidarity, and hope. If you can encourage that energy into a more effective direction, then by all means: lead the way. Trying to appear like some savvy intellectual superior and just telling people they’re wasting their time isn’t the way to do that.

    • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
      1·
      9 months ago

      Don’t you know that doing anything ever is a complete waste of time unless it immediately solves the problem in a single action? It only took five afternoons online watching ineffectual people whine about people doing literally anything for me to learn that valuable lesson.

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    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.

  • happydoors@lemmy.world
    1·
    9 months ago

    This reminds me of old “solidarity” profile picture filters that came out after the Arab Spring and later for France. Solidarity was cool but 2 clicks and a picture that doesn’t amount in any significant action or real participation and is VERY ignorable by people above the line. News media will easily spin it into whatever narrative they want as well

  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
    1·
    9 months ago

    If the Apicalypse of Reddit was any lesson…

    They will first think “Yo, that’s trademarked!” and then “Lool, a little strawfire, this’ll quickly burn out”.

    You can not expect human empathy or even ability to reflect on self from their kind. They are broken by human standards.

  • qevlarr@lemmy.world
    0·
    9 months ago

    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.

    📎💬

    • Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      1·
      9 months ago

      forces me to commit to one issue at a time

      Skill issue

      Paperclips in your comments are a bit more annoying in comparison, also you’ll just forget them.

      The newest rossmann video explains the idea more, but in short the goal is to get a feel for how large the movement is, not creating some slogan.