The Cleaners a Documentary By
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THE CLEANERS A DOCUMENTARY BY HANS BLOCK & MORITZ RIESEWIECK Official selection Geneva International film festival and forum on human rights 2018 88 MIN 2018 GERMANY, BRAZIL CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTACTS 03 CREDITS 04 SYNOPSIS 5-6 DIRECTOR´S NOTES 7-8 PRESS REVIEWS 09 CONTENT MODERATORS 10-11 SILICON VALLEY 12 SECONDARY CHARACTERS 13-15 EXPERTS 15 FILMMAKER BIOS 16-20 PRODUCTION COMPANIES 21-22 02 CONTACTS Publicity Contact US Sales Contact Int‘l Sales Contact Production company Nina Hölzl Submarine - Josh Braun Cinephil gebrueder beetz gebrueder beetz [email protected] Philippa Kowarsky filmproduktion filmproduktion 212 625 1410 [email protected] [email protected] n.hoelzl@ c: 917 687 311 +972 3 566 4129 www.beetz-brothers.de gebrueder-beetz.de +49 (0)30 695 669 14 03 CREDITS CREDITS DIRECTORS MUSIC CO-PRODUCERS LINE PRODUCER Hans Block John Gürtler, Jan Miserre Fernando Dias Kathrin Isberner Moritz Riesewieck and Lars Voges Mauricio Dias Reinhardt Beetz PRODUCTION MANAGER Andrea Romeo DIRECTORS OF PRODUCER Anique Roelfsema PHOTOGRAPHY Georg Tschurtschenthaler PRODUCED BY Axel Schneppat and PRODUCTION COMPANIES Max Preiss Christian Beetz EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS gebrueder beetz filmproduktion Christopher Clements ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS SOUND Julie Goldman Grifa Filmes Zora Nessl Karsten Höfer Philippa Kowarsky Motto Pictures Marissa Ericson CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS EDITORS POST-PRODUCTION Philipp Gromov Carolyn Hepburn MANAGER Hansjörg Weißbrich Neil Tabatzink Xavier Agudo Markus CM Schmidt Robin Smith A gebrueder beetz filmproduktion In co-production with: In association with: Supported by: Grifa Filmes, WDR, NDR, Motto Pictures, ARTE, NHK, BBC, Creative Europe - Media Program rbb, VPRO, Play TV, GEO Television, SVT, RTS, ORF, DR, of the European Union, Ancine, FSA, I Wonder Pictures RSI, Yes Docu, YLE, VGTV, RTV, LRT, BRDE, Film - and Medienstiftung NRW ProPublica and Blue Ice Docs 04 SYNOPSIS SYNOPSIS Logline Long Synopsis 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 doesn‘t like. Who is controlling what we see… and At their very inception, social media networks like Face- what we think? book, YouTube and Twitter claimed to be creating a global community unlimited by geographical or economic boundaries. The idea was through greater communication comes greater understanding. But in recent times these social media networks have faced Synopsis a sinister challenge to that universal communication ideal. The ubiquitous presence of these sites is compounded Enter a hidden third world shadow industry of digi- by the ease of access for those seeking to spread tal cleaning, where the Internet rids itself of what it something more than just snap-shots of their vaca- doesn‘t like. Here we meet five “digital scavengers” tion. Terrorist propaganda and radicalized opinions among thousands of people outsourced from are rife on such social media sites to the extent that Silicon Valley whose job is to delete “inappropriate” they are now fuelling systemic political change and content of the net. In a parallel struggle, we meet sporadic acts of genocide around the world. people around the globe whose lives are dramati- cally affected by online censorship. A typical “cleaner” The majority of the online community has reacted must observe and rate thousands of often deeply with fear and disgust. The topic has found its way disturbing images and videos every day, leading to into the political mainstream – laws and guidelines lasting psychological impacts. have been set up to censor controversial content. Yet Silicon Valley has its own secret: a set of rules, criteria Yet underneath their work lie profound questions and processes by which its companies can curate the around what makes an image art or propaganda material posted to their sites – content moderators. and what defines journalism. Where exactly is the point of balance for social media to be neither an While the policies on permissible content are written unlegislated space nor a forum rife with censorship? in Silicon Valley, the global headquarter for content THE CLEANERS struggles to come to terms with this moderation is in the city of Manila in the Philippines. new and disconcerting paradigm. Evolving from a Tens of thousands of young people are employed shared social vision of a global village to a web of here as “digital scavengers,” moderating thousands fake news and radicalization, the film charts the rise upon thousands of troubling images and videos and fall of social media’s utopian ideology. during the course of a ten-hour shift. 05 SYNOPSIS THE CLEANERS delves into the lives of five of these in that country were automatically removed from content moderators, uncovering the complexities Youtube, thereby erasing essential evidence of war and nuances of their often-traumatic working lives. crimes. It questions how terms like “suitability” and “appro- priate content” are evaluated within the glittering The censorship vs. free speech debate is complex Philippine skyscrapers surrounded by garbage and exemplified in two cases: those of US artist Illma dumps where the cleaners do their work (the answer Gore and LA street artist SABO. The removal of Gore’s is surprising) while considering how decisions made anti-Trump painting from Facebook raised troubling “on the ground” in this remote environment can affect concerns surrounding artistic and political censor- lives and political systems across the globe. ship as well as issues concerning who controls on- line content. Yet on the other side of the political The film’s story pivots on the relationship between spectrum, right wing activist SABO was blocked from the “digital scavengers” and their principals in Silicon Facebook for his provocative racist postings, reifying Valley. It explores the core values of the most famous his claims that the platform is stifling his right to po- of social media companies, Facebook, through the litical free speech. eyes of its former manager Antonio Garcia Martínez, whilst gaining unique insight into the challenges po- The film climaxes with the largely unknown story of sed by censorship through extensive interview with the role Facebook has played in the Rohingya crisis Nicole Wong, former Legal Director of Products at in Myanmar. The Rohingya are considered the most Twitter and former Vice President at Google. Former persecuted minority in the world and there is a deep Google Design Ethicist Tristan Harris underlines the connection between fake news and hate spreading inner mechanics of the platforms that fuel outrage on Facebook and the massacres and the displace- and hate by design. ment of hundreds of thousands of people. Yaman Akdeniz – Turkish professor and “cyber-right So how can the world find balance in light of this new activist” – describes the crucial role of social media communication medium? Is it possible for social media in a country with limited press freedom. We learn to return to its utopian social ideal? Can conduct on about his struggle against the covert deals between the internet be legislated up to a point without pro- Turkey’s social networks and the Erdoğan administ- ducing an online community that is entirely governed ration. Anti-government posts are regularly deleted, by external censorship? and at any time a misconstrued social media message can land anyone in jail. Even the social media com- THE CLEANERS unravels these difficult questions with panies themselves face regular censorship threats. leading experts on the topic of online freedom of speech: David Kaye, UN Correspondent for Freedom Added to this, algorithms or computer generated of Expression, and Sarah T. Roberts, UCLA Professor code are aimed to keep the discourse on the social and expert on commercial content moderation. media sites safe and civil, but they are simply not discer- ning enough to do the job effectively. This starkly de- THE CLEANERS struggles to come to terms with this monstrated by AIRWARS, an NGO documenting war new and disconcerting paradigm. Evolving from a crimes in Syria. The company discovered that more shared social vision of a global village to a web of than thousands of video clips documenting military fake news and radicalization, the film charts the rise activity and fall of social media’s utopian ideology. 06 DIRECTORS’ NOTES DIRECTORS’ NOTES You cannot see what you cannot see We work collaboratively under the label “Laokoon,” using different media of expression, like theater plays, A hidden industry books and film. Laokoon, the seer, was the only person who unmasked the Trojan Horse’s true nature: A dan- gerous fraud. We want to follow in his footsteps by The pressure on the shoulders of those people, who revealing the Trojan Horses of our time: In our debut have to decide whether content will stay online or will film, THE CLEANERS, it’s the double bottom of the safe be taken down, is enormous. With our film we mana- Internet, which billions of users experience every day. ged to give them a voice for the first time. An effort It appears as a matter of course but actually comes that was far from easy: Facebook, Twitter and others at a high price: The hidden exploitation of thousands hire outsourcing companies in Manila, that use code of young workers in the developing world and the words, reprisals and intimidation to keep thousands of employees from disclosing whom they work for. silencing of critical thinking in the digital space. When, after months of research, we eventually got in touch with the young workers we were surprised The relevance of social media goes far beyond holiday how proud many of them were to work as “content photos and cute cat videos. It has become the digital moderators.“ Some even feel a Christian obligation public sphere, where political conflicts take place, to fight against the evil in the World Wide Web and to where human rights violations are documented in keep the platforms “healthy,” as they say.