Lili Reinhart explores the murky depths of the internet in nail-biting new thriller

A new crime thriller starring a Riverdale alum Lili Reinhart shows the human - and often harrowed faces - of social media moderators. The upcoming film delves into the emotional toll of stripping the internet of its most obscene content and the responsibility of social media platforms to report crimes.

In American Sweatshop, Reinhart plays the role of Daisy Moriarty, a social media moderator tasked withpurging the internet of offensive content. But when Daisy spots a video involving a woman, a hammer and a nail, she sets on an obsessive quest to hold someone accountable.

“My first ticket of the morning is a beheading,” says Reinhart’s character in the trailer’s opening. “Oh yeah, I’ve seen that one,” replies her colleague. The exchange showcases the corporate mundanity and apathy highlighted in the one hour and 40 minute-film, before it takes a dramatic and sinister turn. The trailer comes after everyone in the UK with WhatsApp put on red alert and told to follow three new rules.

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American Sweatshop is directed by Uta Briesewitz, who has worked on Westworld, Stranger Thingsand Severance. The film is written by Matthew Nemeth and is set for release in the US on September 19, 2025. No UK release date has yet been announced.

The film premiered in March at the 2025 SXSW festivalin Austin Texas. According to Mashable, American Sweatshop is a “cyberthriller for the doom-scrolling age”.

The psychological toll experienced by social media moderators has gained greater attention in recent years as anonymous workers have opened up about their work in organisations like TikTok and Facebook.

In a 2023 Guardian article, one anonymous moderator explained how difficult the job could be. They said they were judged on how quickly they moderated and described the training as “overwhelming”.

“In the video queue you have no control over what you receive,” shared the anonymous moderators. They described a typical selection of the videos in their queue as including phishing and scam videos, hardcore pornography, Get-Ready-With-Mes posted by underaged users, livestream recordings and doxxed information followed by threats of violence.

Just two years prior, a then 26-year-old former Facebook moderator named Isabella told the BBC that “everyday was a nightmare” and said the support she was offered was “insufficient”. “Thehigh priority queues - the graphic violence, the child stuff, the exploitation and the suicides, people working from home don’t get that - the burden is put on us,” said Isabella.

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Following the growing claims of psychological burden, last October, TikTok welcomed Ireland's Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Dara Calleary, to the official opening of its new Dublin Transparency and Accountability Centre (DUBTAC). The European addition to similar centres established in Los Angeles, Washington DC and Singapore.

Now located in The Sorting Office, DUBTAC is meant to offer an opportunity for academics, businesses, policymakers, politicians, regulators, researchers and many other expert audiences from around the world “to see first-hand how teams at TikTok go about the critically important work of securing our community's safety, data, and privacy”.

Visitors will have an opportunity to learn about moderation systems, processes, and policies, including exploring how moderation teams make decisions about content based on the Community Guidelines and the way human reviewers supplement moderation efforts using technology.

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