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The Cleaners

Play trailer Poster for The Cleaners 2018 1h 28m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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93% Tomatometer 29 Reviews 78% 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.

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The Cleaners

Critics Reviews

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Brad Newsome Sydney Morning Herald 02/22/2019
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. Go to Full Review
Robert Abele Los Angeles Times 11/20/2018
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. Go to Full Review
David Stratton The Australian 10/19/2018
3.5/5
Though The Cleaners, which is filmed in an ominous, noirish style, suffers from some unnecessary padding, it's a revealing and timely documentary. Go to Full Review
Victor Stiff Goomba Stomp 03/30/2020
Even if you're not usually rattled by violence, expect the movie's images to shock you out of your apathy Go to Full Review
Richard Trenholm CNET 04/16/2019
If you're on the internet, you need to see The Cleaners. Go to Full Review
Musanna Ahmed Film Inquiry 03/20/2019
The moral and political debates around digital cleaning from a unique empirical perspective are what make the brilliantly assembled The Cleaners so compelling. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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03/25/2019 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. See more Read all reviews
The Cleaners

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Movie Info

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
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