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tv   CNN This Morning  CNN  February 1, 2024 4:00am-5:00am PST

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they both said they're disappointed margot and greta were left out. robbie remained positive about the whole thing, kind of her approach throughout, and kind of similar to what "barbie" would do in this situation. >> such a class act. "cnn this morning" continues now. the existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health outcomes. >> this is about getting accountability. >> we're doing an industry leading effort. >> your product is killing people. >> nothing will change until the courtroom door is open to victims of social media. >> new u.s. air strikes targeting iranian-backed houthi drones in yemen. >> we're told a houthi missile came within a mile of the u.s. destroyer, before it was shot down. >> u.s. officials believe iran
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may be getting nervous about proxy groups it funds. china's hackers are positioning on american infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc. >> the chinese cyber actors have taken advantage of very basic flaws in our technology. >> this is pre-preparing their ability to strike out against the united states. >> good thursday morning, everyone, it's the top of the hour. phil mattingly with poppy harlow in new york. accusations, tears, apologies, all part of a fiery senate hearing. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle demanding to know what platforms like tiktok, meta, x, and snap are doing to keep children safe online, safe from bullying, drug dealers, traffickers and suicide. >> you have a product that's killing people. when we had cigarettes killing people, we did something about it, maybe not enough. you're going to talk about guns.
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we have the atf. nothing here. there's not a damn thing anybody can do about it. you can't be sued. >> family members whose children were harmed or killed, they were there, holding up pictures of their dead children. their loved ones. then came this moment that shocked everyone. meta ceo mark zuckerberg turning around to those families and apologizing. our tom foreman is in washington this morning. tom, good morning to you. this hearing felt different than any of the hearings. "the new york times" 33 times meta executives have testified before congress, but this one felt different. do you agree? >> absolutely. i don't think i've ever seen anything like this in a senate hearing, and what really marked it in the time we are in right now is that there were democrats and republicans who can barely speak to each other who were completely in lock step in opposing what has been happening online, especially involving
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kids, and they hit this panel that showed up over and over and over again. >> but you have flood on your hands. >> your product is killing people. >> will you set up a victims' compensation fund with your money, the money you made on these families sitting behind you, yes or no? >> reporter: mark zuckerberg, founder of facebook whose company owned instagram pushed into apologizing to families who say they were harmed by online content. some waving pictures of children who died or killed themselves. it was an astonishing moment, yet the billionaire head of meta dug in anyway. >> and this is why we invested so much and are going to continue doing industry-leading efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer. >> your platforms really suck at policing themselves. >> reporter: against a torrent of accusations about enabling sexual exploitation, election meddling, fake news, drug abuse
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and child engagement, the head of five tech giants tried to push back. >> we very much believe that this content is disgusting. >> x will be active and a part of this solution. >> but the fury kept coming in a rare show of unity between democrats. >> 1/3 of fentanyl cases investigated over five months had direct ties to social media. >> reporter: and republicans. >> 37% of teenage girls between 13 and 15 were exposed to unwanted nudity in a week on instagram. you knew about it. who did you fire? >> this is why we're dbuilding these tools. >> who did you fire? >> reporter: there was plenty of heat to go around. >> children are not your priority. children are your product. >> reporter: but no one was hit harder than zuckerberg, whose attempts at defense at times were literally laughed at. >> my understanding is we don't
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allow sexually explicit content on the service for people of any age. >> how is that going? [ laughter ] >> is there any one of you willing to say now that you support this bill. >> reporter: many of the lawmakers are intent on overturning a long standing federal law that immunizes those companies from lawsuits over user-generated content and p puttin putting tough regulations in place. while the tech bosses say they are happy to work on safeguards, skepticism ran rampant. >> nothing will change until the courtroom door is open to victims of social media. >> and that seems to be really one of the uniting principles here, the lawmakers are in effect to put it in different terms, you know, suggesting this is like if the auto industry had no speed limits, no safety regulations, no seat belts.
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no air bags, no anything, except what the auto makers wanted to put in. and they're saying that's where we are right now. this is a time where you're seeing this unbelievable unity. now, will it actually lead to law making that will change this. that's always a big question. these are some of the biggest, most powerful and wealthy companies thatch ever existed on the planet and they don't want to be reined in. as senator richard blumenthal said, there's no basis to trust these social media companies anymore because they haven't done it yet, not effectively. >> and what about the pushback from social media companies at one of the big ones, tech ceos don't write law, but they lobby for them. they lobby for them or against them. >> yeah, of course. i mean to say we don't write laws, well, you know, you could make the argument if the tech companies were actually
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controlling this reasonably, there wouldn't have to be laws. the reason this is happening is because they don't feel like it's being handled reasonably. >> zuckerberg said it's any understanding we don't allow sexually explicit content. i was surprised nobody handed him a phone and said let's sit here for two minutes, and you look around because everything that these lawmakers talked about being a problem online i can find on my phone in about two minutes because it's there. it's not hard to find. and that's their complaint that the tech companies keep saying, well, you know, the laws don't say, and it's hard to find, and we're doing things to stop it, and they're saying, you are making an absolute fortune, and you're not stopping it. maybe we have to. >> but lawmakers have the power to also do something. so now let's see if they act after this. >> and now they might. thank you very much. we have new reporting this morning jooverseas, u.s.
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intelligence seeing signs that iran is growing nervous. u.s. officials tell cnn it appears that deadly drone attack on sunday that killed u.s. service members caught iran's leaders by surprise and actually worried them. >> we're also learning that just a couple of days later, a cruise missile fired by houthi rebels came one mile by hitting a navy destroyer before being shot down. cnn's natasha bertrand is live the pentagon. what have you learned about the intelligence about where teheran leadership is at this moment. >> we're told the u.s. intelligence community has seen signs that iranian leadership has become increasingly nervous about the activities and the increasing escalation of its proxy groups in iraq, syria, and of course the houthis in yemen who iran also supports. it's important to note that iran does fund, equip, support, train these proxy groups all over the region, but they don't have perfect control over them. and so what we are learning is
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that teheran was taken by surprise when of the 160 plus attacks that the proxy groups have laurnched on u.s. service medical examin members, that one on sunday did succeed in killing three americans. u.s. officials believe iran uses proxy groups in the hopes of kind of harassing u.s. and western interests but not necessarily backing them into a corner to the extent that they feel obligated to launch some kind of really forceful attack in response because the iranians, according to the u.s., they don't want to go to war with the u.s., but the proxy groups with escalating in a way that the u.s. of course is now weighing a very significant response. >> yeah, it's still waiting to see what the response looks like. natasha bertrand, thank you so much. a quinnipiac poll shows joe biden with a 6 point lead over donald trump. quite the change from a polling last month that showed the two in a dead heat.
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harry enten tells us it's biden's biggest lead in a national poll. the big reason for the boost, women voter. biden's support has increased five points in just the last month. >> it's a different story in hypothetical and pretty unlikely, not impossible matchup between biden and nikki haley. this poll shows biden losing to her by five points. haley is celebrating the poll but warned in a social media post, donald trump losing big and we end up with president kamala harris. we are learning disturbing details about the man who allegedly decapitated his father and posted the video online. and apocalyptic scenarios, we are speak to go members of congress who were in the room when officials testified about the dangers of hackers in the u.s. >> this is truly and everything everywhere all at once scenario.
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we're learning more details this morning about the man accused of brutally murdering his father and showing his decapitated head in a you tube
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video. court documents show justin mohn sued the federal government at least three times because he was angry about his status as a white man, his student debt and his inability to get work. >> mohn was taken intohis news us yesterday on the program, and we know a lot more now about sort of what may have led up to this. >> reporter: that's right, poppy, and phil, really late yesterday we were learning a lot more about the man at the center of this, 32-year-old justin mohn. and i want to touch on those lawsuits that phil was mentioning because it really paints a picture of this person prior to what happened back on tuesday. like you said, phil, justin mohn actually filed three lawsuits against the federal government in 2022 and 2023 specifically for allowing him to borrow money
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for college without telling him that he might not find satisfactory work for, quote, an over educated white man. the court finally dismissed that final case. then in 2019, mohn also sued his former employer, progressive insurance for being paid less than his female peers, saying he was ultimately fired because of sex discrimination. progressive said in court filings that, no, mohn was fired because he kicked open doors and progressive insurance won that particular case. this is all painting a picture of the man who we now know has been accused of beheading hi own father, then posting about it on you tube, then running to a national guard base 100 miles west of where that crime scene was, then breaking into that national guard base with a gun. again, all a troubling picture of this man, justin mohn who was accused of these crimes. he was arraigned charged with murder and abuse of a body.
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>> great reporting danny freeman, thank you. in just a few hours, president biden heads to michigan to meet with uaw members after they delivered him a critical endorsement. >> the president faces growing pressure to call for a cease fire in gaza after the israel-hamas war reaches a fourth month. a court constituency pushing for that pause joins us next.
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denver's migrant crisis is putting intense pressure on the city's limited resources as thousands of asylum seekers really fill the shelters, the schools, the hospitals, while winter weather leaves the vast majority to survive outside in freezing temperatures. >> denver's mayor is pleading for help as the city is overwhelmed with an emergency. shimon prokupecz is with us thousand. we have spoken to the mayor, you are on the ground, what did you see? >> we got to see firsthand the conditions there. they're not great. the shelters are filled, leaving a lot of the migrants out on the streets as they try to cope with the weather and the fact that the city just does not have the money to support them all. >> >> translator: if we could work, none of us would be living like this, he says. >> reporter: denver facing a record number of migrants, strange resources, leaving many on the streets.
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are you hoping -- you can se jsee the wind here and intense blowing. alexander from venezuela complains of the freezing conditions. he shows us how he has been living. he says this foam protects the tent from the wind. >> this is your bed? >> si. [ speaking in global language ] >> reporter: this is how he looks for work, he says. . that's your sign? but it's getting too cold in denver, and they need to start moving the people out inside into shelters. there's not a lot of space here but the city is doing its best. >> they're worried about what's going to happen to their stuff. >> reporter: migrant advocate urgently tries to help move families. >> my broken heart, denver is
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officially full. no one should come. there's no room. they're going to be outside, freezing to death. >> reporter: the city has 40,000 migrants with about 4,000 in shelters, which are now at capacity. denver's mayor, mike johnston visits a shelter. he's immediately surrounded by migrants asking for help. it's good for him to see what's happening, she says. worried she'll end up in the sf streets with her son. she's thankful, she says, but sorry she came here illegally. republican texas governor greg abbott has sent thousands of migrants to denver on buses, which continue to arrive. >> you've had conversations with greg abbott. >> i have not talked to governor abbott. i reached out, but he has not called me back. >> reporter: so what document to talk to him about if you could speak to him? >> i mean, what i would say to him is i understand, you know,
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they feel like they have a huge influx of people they can't handle in texas alone. i agree, no one state or city should need to solve this entire challenge. i think there's a way to work together. >> reporter: migrants cost the city $180 million this year, the mayor says, and it's on the verge of cutting essential services. >> we don't want to take police officers off the street, firefighters off the street, we don't want to not do trash pick or have the parks and recreation centers not open. >> reporter: the strain on resources frustrating others in need. >> they're using the bend, don't break approach but i think you need to help the american side first, you know, before you help the influx of migrants before us. >> reporter: seeking relief, mayors like johnston pleading for more federal help allowing migrants to work. what is your name? >> wilfred. >> reporter: he's telling us he
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needs a warm place to stay. it's 20 degrees or so. there's no place to go, he says. . you can die from the cold here. it's going to get much colder, you have to go inside, sir, okay. at night, we learn of a group sheltering under a bridge. there's a group of people coming here now to try and take them inside, but it's just too cold to be outside, but this is how they have been living. >> if they can pack up a suitcase, that's as much as they can bring. >> reporter: residents are stepping in, like pastor keith who's opening up his church. >> are we ready to walk or do we need to stay for a little bit? >> reporter: what's your goal here? >> we have some friends, i grabbed a couple of buddies, we're going to offer them shelter for the night. seven in my vehicle. i can take seven. >> reporter: another resident is using her motel as a sanctuary. housing about 300 migrants.
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how many stay here, all of these mattresses? >> yeah. >> around 20. >> reporter: around 20 just in this one room. >> yes. >> reporter: she is like a mother to us, he says. seriously, she gets up at five in the morning and cooks us breakfast. young prince was planning to leave denver to retire, but when migrants started showing up at her hotel, she found a reason to stay. >> my parents come from. >> reporter: your parents? >> born into war so i feel them. >> reporter: they've touched a certain part of you? >> yeah. >> reporter: and it's almost
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like they've become your family? >> yeah, they are. >> reporter: you want to make sure they're eating, taken care of. so that's what she does. every morning she cooks for them, prepares meals all day long. this is what's happening in denver, there are so many people trying to help the migrants who have been living on the streets. denver is really an interesting place because they just don't have the money. they don't have the housing, they don't have the capacity to take care of these people, and sadly it's going to get worse. starting on monday, the city is going to be telling folks who have been in the shelters and hotels that the city has been paying for, it's time to leave. you have been here way too long, and they're going to wind up on the street. there's no place for them to go, and the other thing, you know, you see the mayor there just quickly, you know, he's trying to find some kind of resolution here. let's all work together. he wants the other mayors to get together, governor abbott to
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communicate with him. tell us what you need. we're here to help. to just send people here without any kind of preparation for them, it's just too much for that city, and really the other cities that are dealing with this. >> what a story. bless that woman. no one's paying her. the city is not paying her. >> she's doing that for free. >> thank you. a new warning of apocalyptic scenarios, congressman seth molt molten -- moulton was in the room, and he is with us next.
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china's hackers are positioning on american
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infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real world harm to american citizens and communities if and when china decides the time has come to strike. >> that was fbi director christopher wray sounding the alarm yesterday about china's extensive hacking efforts inside the u.s. warning lawmakers of apocalyptic scenarios as hackers test our power grids. china has denied previous accusations but dire warnings from top security experts, raise testimony after the fbi and doj eliminated a chinese malware attack on american small businesses. joining us to discuss all of this, seth moulton, he sits on the house select committee on china. i appreciate your time this morning. for people watching this and hearing kind of the language that is very jarring, when you look at what's happening here, can you explain to them what
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they should be most concerned about? what are people seeing that's raising these alarms? >> look, we've seen evidence of this work by china in our intelligence briefings for a long time. for a lot of americans, it's hard to understand how this can really hit home, all of these chinese actions could literally result in you losing your water, you know, having your electricity suddenly shut off. china is positioning itself to have the power to do this on our basic infrastructure, and it's one of the ways that the threat from china can really come home to every day americans. >> do we have a sense, and this was touched on somewhat yesterday, but when they would utilize this power, if they have it, if they have infiltrated to the degree people would be concerned about, what would cause them to flip the switch here? >> the working theory is that if xi jinping fulfills his promise and goes ahead and invades taiwan, that he would do this to the home front in america to discourage us from doing anything to help.
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to discourage us from doing anything to defend taiwan's democracy. if china could roll over and take taiwan, they're going to control the entire chip market in the world. they're going to have a say over whether you can buy your next iphone or computer or whatever else, that would be economically disastrous for the united states. but the point is, of course, that china can do this whenever they want, so that's the theory for when they might use this capability, but they could do it tomorrow if they decide to do so? >> yeah, it's a huge concern. you know, tsmc, which sits at the center of a lot of this right now, and is a big concern as well. what's fascinating is these warnings are coming at the same time where the administration has been forced to once again focus on the middle east, like every administration before them, there is a crisis there. we are awaiting a response from the attack that killed three u.s. service members. what would you like to see a response look like? >> well, i'm confident we'll get a response. we got a classified briefing with the administration yesterday on the situation in
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the middle east. but what the president is doing is being very careful about calibrating his response to be clear, decisive but strategic to say to teheran, this behavior is nonacceptable, we're not going to stand idly by, if you kill u.s. troops. at the same time, we're not going to instigate a war. instigating a war in the middle east would play into our enemy's hands, there are groups in the middle east that want exactly that. that's why they're taunting us with these attacks. as you point out, it would also play into china's hands. there would be no greater gift to russia and china than for us to get bogged down in another war in the middle east. >> it's something the administration has deliberately and intentionally tried to avoid throughout the first three plus years. i was struck by one of your colleagues, republican congrescon congressman dan crenshaw responding to concerns about a direct strike inside iran, take a listen. >> it's not out of the question to hit inside iran.
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you hear people clutch their pearling and say you're going to start world war iii. the world war iii doomsdayers were wrong, they were wrong about russia, the cold war, this too. >> the administration has not taken this off the table. u.s. officials i have spoken to, that's not something they're weighing at this point in time. i'm less willing to listen to those who pushed the iraq war or an attack in iraq when it comes to this specific issue. crenshaw is not one of those individuals. what do you say to that comment that he made? >> first of all, no one's saying you're going to start world war iii in the middle east. what we're saying is we're going to get dobogged down in a war i the middle east that would take our eye off the ball, preventing us from dealing with threats from china and russia. that's the concern here. we don't want to lose a lot more u.s. troops to a war in the middle east than we lost the tragic loss of the three soldiers this past weekend.
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but let's also remember that some of these conservative republicans who point to donald trump's attack on soleimani, one of the commanders from iran, that attack did not happen in iran. he was targeted when he was in iraq. that's where they took him out. even the trump administration was careful to calibrate its response in these situations, and not start a war with iran. >> do you have any understanding before i let you go on when the response will actually come? you mentioned that you had a classified briefing. we understand that it's pretty much signed off when that may be come something. >> no, and i wouldn't say if i did know exactly when but the point is the administration is going to choose the time line themselves. we're not going to be beholden to our enemy's time line. we're going to set the standards for what we do. >> it seems imminent at this point, we'll have to wait and see. congressman seth moulton, thank you for your time. >> good to see you. tears and apologies at an explosive senate hearing on the safety of children online.
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suffering families say it's not enough. parent who is lost their son to suicide after repeated cyber bullying, they were in that hearing room, and stthey are wi us this morning.
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online. >> mr. zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, i know you don't mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands. >> your product is killing people. will you personally commit to compensating the victims? you're a billionaire. >> the top executives of the largest and most powerful tech companies in the u.s. faced a bipartisan grilling on capitol hill on wednesday testifying about the potential harm social media can do to young people. meta and snapchat ceos apologized to parents whose children suffered abuse and harm on their platforms. >> would you like to apologize for what you've done to these good people? [ applause ]. >> to go through the things that your families have suffered. we are devastated -- >> to the parents what do you say to those parents, mr. spiegel? . >> i'm so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these t tragedies. >> joining us this morning, rose and rob bronsteen, they were in
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room for all of it. they lost their beloved son nate, he was 16 years old, to suicide in january of 2022 after he was cyber bullied on snapchat. they are founders of buckets over bullying, stop bully of children and teens. thank you for being with us this morning. to begin with you, rose, i wonder when you listened to those apologies and all of the testimony over four hours from those executives if you think they are trying to and can do right by you and for other parents? >> to be honest, i don't think they're doing right by us. i think they can, but because they are more focused on the profits of their businesses and they have so much power, money and greed, they're genuinely not
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interested in taking the steps required to creating platforms or changing their platforms to ensure that all children across the world are safe. >> i wonder what would have made a difference for nate, do you think, a change that they could have made that would have, maybe, saved his life? >> well, nate was cyber bullied over snapchat, so and that's owned by evan spiegel. yesterday, i wish that the senate would have grilled him more. i feel like he kind of got away from being asked hardball questions, but with the case of snapchat, we are advocating for a federal law that was just introduced called sammy's law, which forces social media platforms to open up their api to allow parents to use third-party monitoring software, so when a child is in danger or is receiving dangerous content
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online, a parent would receive an alert notifying them that their child is in danger. so if a snap would open up their platform to these third-party software programs, my husband and i would have received an alert immediately after my son received a message telling him to go kill himself, and we would have been able to intervene. >> if i could just add that one of the counter points that people make, why aren't parents looking after what their kids are doing online. the answer is, there is technology right now that would allow parents to keep their kids safe, or get the platform stand in the way of software working, why, because they don't want to minimize the time that kids spend on their platform sgs. >> rob, you heard the apologies that were presented by mark zuckerberg and evan spiegel, that was a remarkable moment from the zuckerberg perspective because so much of the testimony is practiced, prepared, canned,
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to be candid with you, and that wasn't. but it also wasn't a direct apology to the families for the companies' actions, it was an apology for what people had been through. what was that like in the room? >> whell, i appreciate you pointing that out. number one, it was only because senator hawley clearly shamed him into it, and it was as awkward and uncomfortable as you might expect, and again, it was not an apology. on the part of the ceo and founder of, you know, one of the largest companies in the world for the harm that that company had caused. it was to paraphrase, i'm sorry for what you're feeling. i'm sorry for what you're going through. that's not an apology. it's certainly not the apology that was appropriate. it wasn't genuine. it was forced, with tv cameras rolling. i get that it's a moment that's going viral, and it will be the sound byte, but let's read the
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words carefully, and i have several times, and it's most definitely not an apology for the actions that facebook has done and the harm it's caused. >> i was struck by another mark zuckerberg moment when he read off of some of his prepared testimony, quote, the existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health outcomes. it may be true that we need more years for more direct causal links to be shown over time from science, but i think -- you're shaking your head, rose, as a parent listening to that, whose kids aren't old enough yet to have a ceremosmartphone, and i' terrified for the day they can, right, and i wonder what that was like for you hearing that. >> it absolutely incensed me. there's so much, so much research, so much information that clearly directs what i'm
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going to say is causation between how harmful social media platforms are to our children, and my definition of causation is the number of dead children that we now have and that keep dying because of the harms that they are expoesed to online. how many more dead children do we need to account for and cry for and grieve for to support the fact that there is causation that the activity and the harm that our children are being exposed to is directly related to their time spent on social media and the refusal of the ceos to change the features and to put a duty on them to make sure that the environments that our children are on are safe. >> yeah, and the smartphone and social media both came on the scene in about 2006, and every measurable thing as it relates
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to youth mental health and well being has declined significantly since then and accelerated more during covid. these aren't coincidental, the u.s. surgeon general came out and said as much. adding to what rose said, i learned something hearing from the senators, there's only two industries in this country that are immune from lawsuits, internet companies and gun manufacturers, which is really a telling thing. >> yeah. yeah, and we just showed our viewers this chart that aligns with the time line you just mentioned, rob, about the number of suicides going up. that's the blue line on your screen, everyone at home, and the rise of social media companies as well, and that's for americans aged 10 to 24. thank you both very much for all of this you're doing in nate's name. >> thank you, we appreciate the opportunity to speak about this. >> yeah, thank you for your time. >> of course. if anyone you love is struggling with suicidal thoughts call 988. we'll be right back. causal linkl
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media and young people having worse mental health out comes. it ♪ ♪ president biden is facing mounting pressure to push for a cease-fire as the israel-hamas war nears its fourth month, including and notably from a core constituency. many black voters. black pastors leading the charge in some cities across the country with petitions many signed. there's one from black pastors calling for a cease-fire in which they write we see the deaths and hear the cries from our palestinian siblings whom all deserve to live safe from harm. more than 26,000 people have been killed in gaza since the war broke out according to the hamas-controlled ministry of health. this call from black clergy echos some of the messages the biden administration is hearing from protesters at many public
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campaign events. people chanting, cease-fire now. you see all of the different event on your screen. "the new york times" spoke with several pastors who signed this petition and found, quote, many of their parishioners are so dismayed by the president's posture toward the war his bid for reelection could be in peril. i'm joined by pastor of ray of hope christian church. reverend, in the culture of changing christians, carl day. reverend, let me begin with you. this open letter calling for a cease-fire, this is what struck me and one of the reasons i wanted you to join me this morning. you told "the new york times," quote, we see them, these civilians, as part of us. they are oppressed people. we are oppressed people. i wonder if the biden administration's refusal so far to call for cease-fire has cost the president your vote potentially? >> thank you so much for having
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me on this morning. so far i'm holding out hope that the president will change his position and be stronger in his call for a cease-fire, and that's what we are hoping. he's not lost my vote yet, but i am teetering on the edge as is true of many of my parishioners. as a matter of fact, i had conversation on sunday with some of my young adults, and they were very strong about the fact that they are not going to vote for biden because of this tragedy. we do see the palestinian people as connected to us. as a matter of fact, we believe in the humanity of all, and so we're as concerned about the people of israel as well as the palestinians. we want the war to stop so there will be no more killing of either. >> pastor day, what do you feel and what are you hearing from
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your congregants? >> well, i believe that, you know, people are, you know, very, very upset right now. i'm not really hearing people on the brink of not voting or potentially not voting for joe biden. i think that, you know, while be it people are dying at a ridiculous rate right now, and that's really on both sides in regards to just lives being lost, i think that, you know, people are waiting for it to play out, yet while still being vigilant and understanding the way of today's election -- not today's election, but election in america right now, i think that we should be very mindful of the consequences and the fall-out, what the election could cost us. while we can pray, we certainly can call for justice on both sides. i think that many people that i speak with are very, very aware that, you know, this war could
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be ended if hamas would decide to return those hostages because there are 130 some odd families who still don't have their loved ones. >> right. >> i think we live in a country where we sit here and we talk about how we don't negotiate with terrorists, and if there were 130 some odd people's family members that were still held captive, i think the pressure should be on hamas to do what is right and that's return these people. ultimately, i think the call for a cease-fire can intensify once those things happen. i believe that the palestinians should definitely receive full aid. they should have the right to govern themselves, and i think i've heard quite those sentiments an avowales from the people that surround me in philadelphia. i think that these things can come about. >> pastor day, a lot of your work also is in tandem with, as i understand it, the jewish community in philadelphia. i just wonder if you could speak to what you are hearing from those leaders as well?
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because you are so right to bring up all of those hostages still being held after the horrific october 7th terror attack on israel. >> yes. so a lot of my work takes place in the inner city of philadelphia, but i do do work with the jewish community. >> yeah. >> we formed an alliance, you know, last year at some point before this war broke out. but, yeah, they're still very much mortified by a lot of what is going on. a lot of the jewish members that i speak with are deeply concerned about the well-being of those family members who are held hostage, but at the same time they're very empathetic for the people in gaza. the people that i speak with certainly want this war to end at some point, but, you know, they're also meeting with the family members of those who are held hostage. i met a person whose grandmother was returned over there in israel, and he was distraught and he was heartbroken. he just couldn't wait to find
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his 84-year-old grandmother and was hoping she would be alive. again, i am in the midst of it all and i see it on all sides. again, i think some of these things can happen. >> reverend hale, final word from you now if you were speaking with the administration directly? >> if i had the opportunity to speak to the administration i would simply share with them how hard it is for us to be aware of the suffering that's taking place, both by israel and gaza, but particularly by gaza and the palestinians. 27 plus thousand people have died. 10,000 more of them, children. so i am just concerned that this war is continuing. i want to see the hostages returned, but i want to see the senseless killin

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