From delivery services and ride-sharing to tagging images for AI, millions of people are now working in the digital labour market, which is now worth over $5 trillion and growing rapidly. The important question of the stories and working conditions of these mostly minimum wage workers around the world, who make this technology revolution possible on a large scale, are mostly hidden.
“THE GIG IS UP” highlights the largely oppressive stories of people who are lured by promises of flexible working hours and independence, as well as control over time and money, but find a very different reality. Working conditions often prove dangerous, pay changes without notice and they can be fired at short notice by deactivation or a bad review.
This film by director Shannon Walsh shows the brutal reality of the nameless workforce behind the technology boom, which in the end really only benefits the giant corporations.
Film discussion with Mary L.Gray (Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Author of “How to stop Silicon Valley from Building a new underclass”)
Film discussion afterwards!
FSK 0 (limited release according to JuSchG)