The Cleaners

The big Internet companies, not all which can properly be described "social media", are drowning in the unending flood of online content. From hate mail to pornography, from depictions of child abuse to manipulated war pictures used for propaganda, the necessity for preventive action is growing – if only to avoid damaging one's own public image. As a rule, however, this task is not normally performed by the corporations themselves: "outsourcing" is the cheapest solution as well as the most comfortable – and the contracted companies are also responsible for any corresponding mistakes. The result is that in Manila, for example, an untold number of poorly trained and quickly psychologically-impacted "moderators" sit long hours in front of their computer screens and, in accordance to highly schematic and American criteria, use the delete key to wage war against objectionable content on the Internet. The documentary focus of THE CLEANERS is primarily on the work they do, but also looks at the related debate in the USA.

The big American "social media" companies have come to realize that the content they offer has long been subject to abuse. Pornography and child abuse, war and propaganda are spreading: since access to the platforms is easy, more or less everybody can publish what they want online. Aside from the corresponding ethical questions, the "social media" firms are also faced with the problem that brutalization and disregard can, in the end, also have a negative effect on their own business. It's probably too expensive, if not in some cases harder, to take on the responsibility and conduct the online "deletion work" themselves. The task has long since been outsourced. In Manila, for example, the workers are cheap and ideal for the job. One "moderator", as the small companies call their Internet controllers, candidly confesses that she is grateful for the job because otherwise she might have ended up on the streets of Manila as a garbage scavenger. Although she possibly even realizes that she is still scavenging trash – and that digital garbage is probably even harder to deal with than the real thing – she would never admit it.

The constant confrontation with the horrors and inhumanities on the Net leaves its mark, regardless of how unthinkingly the "moderators" in Manila follow the much too simple-minded specifications – specifications to which Illma Gore's satirical portrait of Donald Trump also fell victim. The pressure of numbers is also there: around 25,000 checks per shift are expected. There is no time for discussion with colleagues or superiors. One moderator tells in passing of a colleague's suicide that he himself followed on screen, unable to intervene. The company doesn't talk about the suicide, just like it doesn't talk about the working conditions of the "moderators".

The filmmakers behind THE CLEANERS don't take the easy way out: they don't leave any doubt regarding the need for tackling the abuse of the freedom offered by the Net. The rules of criminal relevance of specific countries – the documentary also looks at the hearings in the US between politicians and representatives of the big companies – could possibly already function as the criteria. But it doesn't stop there. Fearing that their portals could end up fully blocked in Turkey – just like how the independent newspapers and TV stations there were closed – the major corporations now bend to the objections of Erdogan and delete everything that displeases him.

"Social media is rapidly evolving into a digital public space. Political conflicts are carried out there, human rights violations are documented in real time, art and satire is disseminated, and social movements are organized. So who decides what we see or not? That's the issue that we pursued." (Moritz Riesewieck). In the end, the activities of the "moderators" take place in secret, even less in the eye of the public than the Net itself. The film tells its story almost exclusively in night shots. "It isn't just about penis and breast pictures. Rather, in many cases it is also about political content that could be vigorously debated. For example: What glorifies violence? What serves informational purposes? What is a government opponent? What is a terrorist? That's where one has to take a closer look, and the transparency is not provided. The social networks make it easy for themselves, because they [the moderators] are not even employed by them. If mistakes are made, they happen at a different company. Above all, they also happen in a place that is difficult to reach." (Riesewieck)

And so the dilemma remains: the problem cannot be solved with or without the delete button. THE CLEANERS doesn't claim to know the solution. But the filmmakers take a look at the problem with an intensity not found to date in any other documentary film.