The Abuse Algorithm

Animal videos are extraordinarily viral across social media. Many are harmless and fun. But hidden from our feeds lies a deeply disturbing side to the online animal craze that must be exposed. While developing Cruelty for Clicks, I learned the extent that content creators will go to earn views and profit, deceiving caring people and eluding social media companies’ moderators.

Abusers sometimes prey on our compassion with staged “rescues” — moments of danger followed by relief, designed to tug on our heart strings at the animals’ expense. What looks like kindness can in fact be something much more sinister. As our investigation deepened, the scope extended far beyond fake rescues into a larger ecosystem of abuse created purely for engagement. This content hides in plain sight on mainstream platforms, slipping past moderation and blending into everyday browsing. The normalization is what makes it so insidious: cruelty repackaged as entertainment, sometimes even linked to underground torture rings.

I chose to tell this story with the pacing and tension of a true crime thriller because that’s what this is — a form of criminal behavior thriving in digital shadows. Through investigative storytelling, a darker visual language, and reenactments that reflect the concealed nature of online spaces, Cruelty for Clicks exposes the truth hidden behind the camera. The film ultimately asks audiences to look more closely at what they consume and share, and to recognize that until Big Tech takes accountability, the suffering will continue.