The clippening

Earlier this year, after a tumultuous period serving as the former second-in-command at the FBI, Dan Bongino went back to what he is perhaps known best for: video podcasting. After Bongino exited the role in January, he began promotion for the return of his podcast, The Dan Bongino Show . He bought out a billboard in Times Square in New York; he dropped teaser videos for his first new episode in months. Bongino also deployed a more experimental promotional tactic, aimed at getting portions of his show in front of a wider audience. For this, he used clippers. Clippers are largely anonymous social media accounts whose sole purpose is to rack up views. The accounts take a piece of longform content — an hours-long livestream, for example, or a podcast — and pull out the most exciting, controversial, or shocking moments. Sometimes the accounts are dedicated to clipping, but companies will also recruit accounts with existing followers. Clippers can be based anywhere in the world (one tech founder who uses clippers has described some of them as “hungry Slovakian teenagers”) while targeting English-speaking audiences. After clippers get the source material that a brand wants to promote, they cut it down and blast their version into the open web. Hundreds or even thousands of clipping accounts might be sharing similar videos, all in competition with one another. …