The Cleaners

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The Cleaners

2018

1h 28m

Documentary

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

93%

Tomatometer

29 Reviews

76%

Popcornmeter

50+ Ratings

The hidden shadow industry of digital cleaning, where the internet rids itself of what it doesn't like, such as violence, pornography and some political content.

Brad Newsome

Sydney Morning Herald

Are we seeing a genocide in Burma as an externality of an algorithm written by nerds in California? That's one of many disturbing questions raised in this documentary.

Feb 22, 2019

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Robert Abele

Los Angeles Times

The chilling, morally hyper-conscious film "The Cleaners"... introduces us to a handful of these hidden, meagerly paid office workers, cogs in a shadow business headquartered mainly in Manila in unassuming buildings.

Nov 20, 2018

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David Stratton

The Australian

Though The Cleaners, which is filmed in an ominous, noirish style, suffers from some unnecessary padding, it's a revealing and timely documentary.

Rated: 3.5/5

Oct 19, 2018

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Victor Stiff

Goomba Stomp

Even if you're not usually rattled by violence, expect the movie's images to shock you out of your apathy

Mar 30, 2020

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Richard Trenholm

CNET

If you're on the internet, you need to see The Cleaners.

Apr 16, 2019

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Musanna Ahmed

Film Inquiry

The moral and political debates around digital cleaning from a unique empirical perspective are what make the brilliantly assembled The Cleaners so compelling.

Mar 20, 2019

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Audience Member

Raises some good issues about Facebooks moderators. Interesting, but not mentioned, was that most of this is outsourced to Manila, where a large percent of the population is Catholic, which may effect their views when moderating. The whole point of human moderation seems subsumed by making moderators adhere unerringly to FB policy-- delete the political cartoons with nudity, even though as far as free speech goes, they would be legally allowed under US law.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

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Hans Block

Director

Moritz Riesewieck

Director

Hans Block

Screenwriter

Moritz Riesewieck

Screenwriter

Georg Tschurtschenthaler

Screenwriter

Christopher Clements

Executive Producer

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Synopsis

The hidden shadow industry of digital cleaning, where the internet rids itself of what it doesn't like, such as violence, pornography and some political content.

Director: Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck
Producer: Christian Beetz, Georg Tschurtschenthaler
Screenwriter: Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck, Georg Tschurtschenthaler
Production Co: Motto Pictures, Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion, VPRO Television, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) [de], I Wonder Pictures, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Runtime: 1h 28m