Documentary
The Cleaners
88 Min. | Germany, Brazil 2017
Director: Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck | Language: German, English, Tagalog
When you post something on the web, can you be sure it stays there? Enter a hidden shadow industry of digital cleaning where the Internet rids itself of what it does not like violence, pornography and political content. Who is controlling what we see and what we think? The Cleaners reveals a gigantic shadow industry of digital censorship in Manila, the world's largest outsourcing location for content moderation. Tens of thousands of people in ten hours shifts delete incriminating photos and videos from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter & Co. on behalf of the big Silicon Valley companies. The cruelty and continuous strain of this traumatizing work changes the perception and personality of the content moderators.
Both fascinating and shocking, Hans Block's and Martin Rieseweck's timely documentary not only introduces the world of the content moderators, but sheds a light on the entanglement of censorship, fake news, and hate online, how they are accelerated by the functioning and mechanisms of the global social media platforms and how they fuel social, political and societal conflicts.
A documentary, mind-blowing as a thriller and scary as a horror movie.
Antje Wessels
Award
German Director Awards Metropolis 2018: Best Director for Documentary
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