The Cleaners

The most extensive of singer/songwriter Martin Newell's various projects, Cleaners from Venus recorded some of the finest – and most neglected – British pop/rock of the 1980s. The Cleaners' failure to find a wider audience is due at least in part to their unconventional method of distribution. After a short, bitter experience in the music business recording for a large label, Newell retreated to his home studio at the beginning of the '80s, determined not to have to play by the usual compromising music business rules. As the chief of Cleaners from Venus, he and cohorts recorded several albums on their own, and distributed them via self-produced cassettes that were chiefly available by mail.

7,000 miles from Silicon Valley in downtown Manila, a secret team of content moderators have a target of 25,000 Facebook, Google and Twitter posts to delete each day. Trawling through the world’s most violent, disturbing and highly contentious online material - in the form of terrorist videos, child pornography, self-harm material and political propaganda - 'the cleaners' are individually responsible for deciding what stays online and what gets removed. This film explores the hidden and complex world of digital content moderation where undesirable material is 'cleaned' from the internet by a hidden army of nameless people.

"Delete…Ignore…Delete… Ignore…" Someone is out there censoring your social media feed. Do their decisions distort your understanding of the world as much as clever hoaxes and "fake news"? They’re hired by Silicon Valley leaders like Facebook and Google to do “digital cleaning," content moderators who are paid to sift through and remove what they deem as inappropriate content on the internet, thereby influencing what people around the world see and think. Told in the sinister style of a neon, cyberpunk thriller, The Cleaners charts social media’s evolution from a shared vision of a global village to a dangerous web of fake news, extremism and radicalization.

Under Wartime Conditions is the 1984 cassette-only album by The Cleaners From Venus. It would gain a cult following for decades. This is from a compact disc pressing made by Captured Tracks in 2013.

Making your own DIY cleaners is a fun way to end the hassle of cleaning your home.