Inside a Conservative Operation to Hijack Your Social-Media Feed

I f you’re short on cash , there is someone in Riga, Latvia, who can help.

“You can literally make 100k a month with this campaign,” a young man with blond curls and a thick accent says into a camera.

All you have to do is post on social media video clips of “anything that supports Republican.” Unfamiliar with U.S. politics? No problem: “If you’re not from the USA, like, What the fuck is even Republicans? like me,” then simply go to Gemini or ChatGPT, he suggests, “and be like ‘Yo, Gemini, I want some videos promoting Republican values.

Give me ideas.’ Go to Gemini.

Get ideas.

Boom.” The man, who goes by Serviuos, is promoting a campaign called Elephant Clipping, run by his company, ClipIt.

The company pays subcontractors, many from poorer countries in Eastern Europe and the global South, to chop up videos the company provides into bite-size pieces in the hope that the clips will go viral online.

Such “clipping” operations have become a popular means of manipulating people’s attention.

Brands, influencers, musical artists, and others spend six-figure sums on such promotional campaigns.

Perhaps inevitably, the practice is now moving into politics, often without the transparency required to know exactly what is being served up and by whom.

Five months before the midterms, though, Serviuos is up-front about the goal of the Elephant Clipping campaign: “So that republican win in USA,” he writes in one message.

I sent Serviuos a list of questions about his work in American right-wing politics.

He wrote back, “Seems very out of context,” but didn’t comment further.

Many video-clipping services operate in relative secrecy so that the public isn’t aware of the manipulation of their social-media feeds.