While writing the LOST WEEKEND and RATED AND SLATED columns each week, both of which rely on combing through web detritus, I come across the same videos again and again.In the good old days, this could’ve been put down to the magical effects of the internet hive mind organically surfacing the funniest, weirdest, most stupid stuff for global attention. But these are not the good old days, and—in the wake of the Geese “astroturfing” furore—I’ve started to wonder if more nefarious forces might be at work, manipulating everything I see.You might’ve heard of clip farms, the online marketing companies whose campaigns bring together a load of social media accounts to post about a single topic. To find out more about how this works, I spoke to Peter Sint, the CEO of ClipHaus, which has worked with Future, GymShark, Coinbase, and a U.S. mayoral candidate among others. They’ve got something like 200,000 people in their network (actual humans rather than bots) and, in the last couple of months, have generated more than a billion views from over 120,000 posts on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, X, and Facebook. “People skip ads, but you can’t really escape a thousand Reels showing up on your feed,” explains Sint.While exposing your own algorithm to the world is always a dangerous business, I took the plunge to get his opinion on whether the clips I’ve been bombarded with in recent weeks are creating a stir that is organic or genetically modified (i.e. paid for).AUDREY HOBERT’S TINY DESK CONCERTHas there ever been a recording from one of these tiny desk things that’s not utter cringeworthy dogshit? pic.twitter.com/SFvDGuLJaj— Lobster Thermidor (@scenicresorts) August 15, 2026With the notable exception of Napalm Death, Tiny Desk concerts mostly suck. A week or so back, Audrey Hobert was really put on blast over this recent performance of “Sue Me”—was it a classic case of the online misogyny machine grinding into gear, or something deeper and maybe even self-inflicted?Peter Sint, ClipHaus: One of my favorite advertisements back in the day was a Coca-Cola commercial where this kid was buying two cans of Pepsi, and it looked like it was a Pepsi ad, but then they put the Pepsi on the floor and stood on those cans to go get a Coke. We believe that you don’t have to put someone down to raise yourself up, but I do think that people are using this tactic. There’s definitely ways that people can put out a message where it seems more organic, making memes, where it’s like, “Oh, a bunch of people are thinking this,” but maybe orchestrated by someone to do it, right?Earlier this year, everyone was getting mad about Geese working with Chaotic Good to supposedly “manufacture popularity.” Is it possible that marketers are deliberately orchestrating hate campaigns against their own artists to make them go viral?I can’t say this for everybody in this industry, but we absolutely have guidelines that we set with ourselves and that isn’t something we promote or the goal that we’re trying to achieve. There’s always a right way to do it. But the thing to remember is that the [clippers] are all independent. They’re all choosing of their free will to say something one way or another, even if the message is consistent.Verdict: MaybeANDERSON FROM BRADYYOURTUTOR’S VIDEOSLadies you need to cuff up men like this pic.twitter.com/5JUg96Wl6a— 𝘗𝘙𝘐𝘔𝘈 (@nocertainlynot) August 16, 2026The eponymous Anderson is a recurrent contestant on TikToks by BradyYourTutor. When the inevitable happens and the online education platform becomes a Netflix series, this heartthrob’s harem will look like something from one of his beloved medieval kingdoms.Peter Sint, ClipHaus: Well, first thing I notice if I zoom in here, it looks like someone saved the video from TikTok, didn’t remove the watermark, and then reposted it. Clippers are putting the liability of what they’re posting on themselves—obviously, we give a general direction, a brief of what is appropriate to do, but not every clipper will listen. They might go and do something that we told them to refrain from. That’s why we discipline them after the fact and make sure that activity doesn’t continue from them.Verdict: OrganicTREE PARKOUR MANThis is the natural state of man, how we were evolved to live. Every man and women were able to do this until grain was introduced. pic.twitter.com/yRoL5fG7MK— Birch Brother (@BjorkBrodern) August 16, 2026Who can say why I was served this video—is it because I have a Rousseauian interest in man’s natural state, or because I can’t stop watching videos of parkour, waiting, like a true Hobbesian, for these agile superhumans to smash their skulls against the ground?Peter Sint, ClipHaus: So, right off the bat, it doesn’t seem like there’s a message that they’re doing. They’re just putting this clip up. It’s very engaging, though, visually. Clippers don’t want to repost a video with nothing attached to it because platforms will shadowban that. Typically, they’ll put captions or some type of hook or visual ad to it, or maybe even change up the speed, the music, whatever it is. Doesn’t seem like it happens here. I think it’s just a straight-up video of some crazy parkour. Tarzan stuff.Verdict: Organic“KILLING IN THE NAME” BY RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINERage Against the Machine “Killing in the Name” (Pinkpop 1993) pic.twitter.com/6hihsnzL9S— Mike Bones (@mrmikebones) August 19, 2026In the right context—chest day, trolling Christmas chart campaign, surprise bloghaus party anthem—this song still slaps, but why did it erupt out of the teenage subconscious to amass millions of views over the weekend?Peter Sint, ClipHaus: This is a good sign of it being a clip because it’s giving context in the top, which is what clippers do. If they were given an agenda, they will describe it. The account itself looks like it might be a person that’s really into rock, but then who knows, right? If you have pages where you’re posting consistently in one niche, you could join a clipping campaign. But what I will say is that it seems to be posting multiple different artists in that niche, so now I’m thinking, like, “Okay, who would pay them to just promote rock music in general?” Typically, we’re trying to promote one artist or one song or one album—if there’s not a strong sense of purpose behind a clip, then it’s most likely not a clip.Verdict: MaybeANDREW TATE’S renTED BUGATTIAndrew Tate’s Bugatti and Aston Martin were reportedly rented, according to recent court filings from the Tates’ lawyer in their U.S. case. pic.twitter.com/dVdzXcwMrM— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) August 22, 2026I was stunned to learn Andrew Tate isn’t the billionaire playboy he appears to be. Next you’ll be telling me my PhD from Hustler’s University doesn’t make me a qualified doctor.Peter Sint, ClipHaus: This looks more like a news page posting pop-culture moments because it’s very sporadic—a lot of different topics. The thing is that they could be part of clipping too, these are pages people like us would source and be like, “Hey, please promote this because you have a lot of followers and you’re already posting things that are relevant.” So I think this is definitely a page that could be participating in clipping.Verdict: MaybeNEIL PATRICK HARRIS’ TRICK FOR ALWAYS GETTING FRESH FRIES AT MCDONALD’SNeil Patrick Harris reveals his trick for always getting fresh fries at McDonald’s“Here’s a pro tip. When you go to McDonald’s, if you order fries, order them fresh. You can order fresh fries”Host: “You can do that? Wow”Neil: “You’re very excited. How often are you getting… pic.twitter.com/tT20mSGku0— Casper (@CasperOnChain) August 19, 2026Every week, someone who once made me laugh when I was on the other side of puberty pops up to talk about jujitsu or their collection of homemade vases, and it’s like, “Wait, what are you doing here? You’re meant to be trapped forever in pawn-store-DVD-VOD-sitcom-boxset purgatory. Now get back to where you belong!”Peter Sint, ClipHaus: Less organic because of the caption—it’s very descriptive. It seems intentional that they’re writing out what the conversation is. The “call to action” is inherently go watch the video, right? They can watch the whole thing on X. It’s 27, 26 seconds, which means it’s engaging enough to go viral. People are going to read it and ultimately search up what that original piece of content is. So it may be the people who produced this video running some clipping behind it.Verdict: ClippingGUY LIVING IN A MEXICAN MOTELThis is how civilization dies, 100% hedonism, no family, no roots, no legacy pic.twitter.com/fVeK5ATVfQ— nomadgeist (@nomadgeist) August 22, 2026[ClipHaus employee Lauren, who’s sitting in on our call with her dog Coco, chimes up to say this tattooed guy is actually one of her friends, who lives on a diet of 100% organic rage bait]Peter Sint, ClipHaus: Clippers love to do rage bait. Rage bait gets the most engagement and the most attention, so they always have that at the forefront of their mind. But it’s also like, hey, what is that line that you can’t cross, you know? They definitely know that they need to provide a little bit of controversy somewhere in the post. At ClipHaus, we don’t promote any type of hate. We don’t want to spread or put things out that are going to hurt people in the world. That’s the only thing that we’re very serious about. Verdict: Organic“AI IS THE NEW PUNK ROCK”AI is the new punk rock – @RickRubin1000% agree and have been saying this for a while that we are entering a new golden era of creativity thanks to AI. Where my fellow punk rock AI creatives at? filmmakers, vibe coders, artists… let me know what you’re making. pic.twitter.com/8jZVkQbfbQ— Sam Wasserman (@SamJWasserman) August 21, 2026And of course, no trip through the algorithmic subconscious would be complete without Rick Rubin popping up to give one of the worst takes you’ve ever heard.Peter Sint, ClipHaus: One thing that stands out to me is, there’s obviously captions, subtitles put in the video—clippers will do that. But this looks like it’s just a person that has a strong take on this and it’s a post that they took from somewhere else. X is very verbal. They all seem like clippers because they all seem super intentional. Where you might be able to spot a lot of differences is Instagram and TikTok because they have a lot of brainrot. So when you realize that, “Hey, this post isn’t just entertaining, I feel like there’s a message, an intentional one, behind it.” That’s when you can start knowing this might be a clip. But X is a very Wild West landscape; it’s hard to tell.Verdict: MaybeFollow Adam on Instagram @yungtolstoiThe post Asking a Clip Farm CEO Which of These Recent Viral Clips Have Been Clip Farmed appeared first on VICE.