NBC News NOW Full Broadcast - May 11th, 2021

hey everyone i'm alison morris who are watching nbc news now here's what's happening an emotional day for andrew brown junior's family they're seeing more body cam footage of the day he was killed by sheriff's deputies on capitol hill a showdown in the senate over the for the people act what does that voting rights legislation look like tonight and the colonial pipeline still offline the fuel shortages in this country getting worse by the day we start today with the andrew brown jr body cam video nbc news correspondent katie beck is in elizabeth city north carolina katie we are talking about nearly two hours of footage from that deadly confrontation between sheriff's deputies and andrew brown jr but his family only seeing about 20 minutes of it why so little well that's the portion of the video allison that the judge determined was relevant to the family it's the only portion of the video where the decedent andrew brown appears on tape so the judge made the determination that that 18-minute clip will be all the family will see today despite two hours of body camera footage that came from body cams and one dash cam the family is currently inside now reviewing that tape they do not have a time limit on how long they can spend reviewing it so we do suspect they will watch it carefully and perhaps several times before they come out and give us their impressions of what they are going to see they they do have put on the record they feel that this was an execution a bad police shooting and that andrew brown was was murdered by police we suspect that after watching the longer version of this clip they will say something similar as they said as they were headed in but we expect to hear from them sometime you know in the near future how about the calls to release this body cam video to the press or to the public i know uh that has been the call there in elizabeth city any updates at this point we have no idea on when this could be available to the public right now this is only being viewed it's not being released so at this point a public seeing of it is dicey the judge said he would review the possibility of releasing it within 30 to 45 days checking in with the state bureau of investigation and seeing where they are on their case he says he does not want to jeopardize the case by releasing it too soon so at this point it is not looking um like that will happen in the near future all right katie a lot's still up in the air there we will of course wait to hear from the family i appreciate your reporting today thank you so much senate democrats pushing ahead with their sweeping voting rights bill today the rules committee starting a marathon markup nbc news capitol hill correspondent leanne caldwell live for us on the hill so lee and senate leaders chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell are part of this markup that's kind of rare uh and and i i really feel like shows us how high stakes this is uh so how's it going so far yeah well this they are in a marathon markup which is what they're doing is they're trying to craft this legislation they have the basis of the legislation which is taken from hr1 which the house passed a couple months ago but this legislation is pitting republicans and democrats against each other and it has become a critical central divisive issue up here in congress and also out in the states we'll talk about that in a moment but first let's listen to the two leaders at this hearing today the democratic party on its own wants to rewrite the ground rules of american politics for their benefit we all know that's what this is about in democracy when you lose an election you try to persuade more voters to vote for you you don't try to ban the other side from voting democrats have prioritized expanding access to the polls while what's happening in the states including georgia arizona texas florida there are legislators who are trying to restrict access to the voting booth making it more difficult to vote so while that's playing out in state houses this battle where democrats control congress is playing out in congress and both sides have very strong opinions on this and there is little room for compromise alison leanne the other big news on the hill as we all know liz cheney versus the gop uh what's the latest from lawmakers ahead of a vote we expect tomorrow uh to get her out of her leadership role yeah they're getting ready for this vote tomorrow it's going to be behind closed doors it's going to be in the morning and members are going to vote via secret ballot on if they should recall liz cheney from her leadership position now representative gop leader kevin mccarthy put out a really stunning letter to his colleagues yesterday encouraging them to remove her from that position but representative cheney does have some allies and some vocal allies as well including some in the senate senator joni ernst of iowa let's take a listen you know cancel culture as cancer culture no matter how you look at it and unfortunately i think there are those that are trying to silence others in the party i support president trump and his policies so i have a slightly different view on that but i still think we shouldn't be trying to cancel voices is using the republican language against the republican party she's a republican too about cancel culture senator mitt romney another cheney supporters fundraising in support of representative cheney and but what's clear is that cheney is going to lose her position in leadership among house republicans as as her position has just become they say untenable when they're trying to win back the majority they say they say they can't they have to embrace the president former president leanne we're also hearing about some movement today on uh the commission to investigate the capital attack what's going on there that's right there's does seem to be a little bit of movement this thing has been stalled as house speaker nancy pelosi has really been pushing for this january 6 commission to investigate what happened on january 6. now she has deputized among the stalemate the chairman of the homeland security committee benny thompson and his counterpart uh representative katco who's the top republican on that committee to try to find finalize the last sticking point which is the scope of the commission democrats want the scope to be focused solely on january 6. republicans had wanted it to be expanded to include the the some of the strife revolving around racial justice protests last summer so we'll see democrats are hopeful that they could reach a deal as early as this week and perhaps bring a bill to the floor next week but allison i've heard that before leanne you've been told this story one time too many we'll see what happens leon caldwell thank you so much thanks president biden talking vaccines with a bipartisan group of governors this afternoon the goal of that virtual meeting figuring out innovative ways to get coveted shots in arms as vaccination rates slow down nbc news white house correspondent mike memoly joining me now mike the president has said he wants 70 percent of adults to have at least one shot by july 4th so what brilliant ideas did they come up with at this meeting well allison the president heard from three republican governors three democratic governors talking about how to reach those harder-to-reach populations who haven't been getting the vaccinations just yet he heard things about mobile units how effective they were at reaching rural areas and inner cities for instance about having the johnson and johnson one and done dose how important it was to have that back online also about having folks like churches and trusted community voices rather than government officials being the messengers here but i have two words for you that really was the big takeaway and that was free stuff uh the main governor for instance talked about the vouchers that the the state was about to begin giving out to newly vaccinated individuals for things like llb nor fish and wildlife licenses tickets to a minor league baseball game the president also talked about a new partnership with ride sharing companies for free rides as well take a listen to him talk about that americans from every walk of life are getting their vaccines we got more to do though it isn't democratic progress or republican progress it's american progress and now now we've got to take the next step together from may 24th through july 4th uber and lyft uber and lyft are both going to offer everyone free rides to and from vaccination sites i think that is really stepping up so allison this was all about sharing best practices and one of the things that the president responded to actually most from a republican governor spencer cox of utah was this idea of incentivizing americans to get vaccinated by talking about the benefits of being vaccinated and he was encouraging the president to do more things to lift things like masking mandates and new guidance that could come from the administration that would show americans that it's worth getting the vaccine because your life really will open up in ways that it hasn't before look mike you said the magic words right free stuff anyone who doesn't believe in the power of free stuff has never seen what happens when you throw a couple of pizza pies in a newsroom that is the way to get the people i know president biden is also talking with arizona senator kirsten cinema about the american jobs plan today what are you hearing about that meeting yeah so many of these meetings in addition to the big ones that we know coming up tomorrow that meeting with the congressional leadership thursday with republican senators but kristen cinema for all that we talk about joe manchin she's another democratic senator to keep an eye on from arizona she's not facing re-election anytime soon but she has really demonstrated that she is somebody who intends to be an independent voice she got some criticism for opposing for instance uh the minimum wage increase that democrats had hoped to include uh in the covid response bill and so this is just a sign that for all the talk about getting republicans on board and hoping to go big with a bipartisan bill the president is doing everything he can to make sure he has every democratic vote lined up in case they do have to go through a reconciliation process again mike the administration saying a million people have signed up for health insurance during an affordable care act special enrollment window it's a window that closes on august 15th what's president biden saying about those numbers and the future of the aca yeah i saw a remarkable statistic today which is for all to talk about what the trump administration did to try to undercut the president's health for president obama's signature health care law and the attempts they tried to of course repeal it weren't successful but to administratively under undo it there are now more americans enrolled through the affordable care act now than there were when president obama left office four years ago now one of the first steps president biden took of course was reopening the exchanges with the pandemic as the rationale getting more people health care and now he's using this new milestone to point to some of the proposals he has in his american family's plan and in a statement i'll read part of it to you he said the american family's plan will build on this work to make health care more affordable today's milestone demonstrates that there is a need and a demand for high quality affordable health coverage and so clearly the administration uh doing everything it can to fortify the affordable care act after four years in which the president president trump tried to undercut it but clearly some of their proposals would even go beyond the benefits that have already been under underway there mike there are several reports out there that president biden will name rahm emanuel as the ambassador to japan uh any updates there what have you got on that one yeah well one of those reports was from nbc news just last week about rahm emanuel as the front runner for that ambassador ambassadorship in japan we always like to remind everyone of our own reporting here some of the other names that the president is closing in on naming to some of these ambassadorial posts uh includes cindy mccain to be the ambassador to the world food program that's a good one because it's based in rome so i say that as an italian-american a good destination julian smith a former biden uh security official is also being considered as the ambassador to nato ken salazar as the ambassador to mexico but there's a reason the white house hasn't announced these yet the white house has said they want to announce its first batch of ambassadorial nominations as career officials rahm emanuel the former chicago mayor the former white house chief of staff he is what you would call a political appointee and so this administration is going to announce some of those career professionals in the foreign service before they get to people like rahm emanuel got it mike you said two of my favorite things there uh nbc news my favorite news source and rome like could you pick a better place to eat pasta i've eaten my way through that city many times that is an appointment i could live with i may or may not have applied for one of those ambassadorships there myself but i'm still here you'd be great you'd be great mike emily thank you always sir thanks alison gas shortages in the u.s getting worse colonial pipelines struggling to get our nation's largest oil pipeline back up and running after the russian cyber hack over the weekend nbc news correspondent tom costello is outside a fuel tank farm in virginia hey allison good day so this is one of the massive tank farms that that pipeline feeds this one's in fairfax virginia so with the pipeline dry the levels inside the tanks are dropping right now the bottom line is colonial believes it should have its pipeline back up and running by the weekend listen the clock is ticking here because the longer the pipeline remains shut down the more likely it is you and i will be paying more at the pump day four and a critical 5500 mile oil pipeline remains shut down this morning gas shortages now being reported in at least six states and expected to grow stretching down the highways as customers wait at the pumps the governor of north carolina has declared a state of emergency the station there running out of fuel motorists that absolutely have to travel should be about the only ones on the roads the severity of the situation is significant the fuel supply shortage also impacting some air travel including two daily flights from american airlines president biden now promising swift action the department of energy is working directly with colonial to get the pipelines back online and operating at full capacity as quickly and safely as possible the ransomware attack is also exposing new vulnerabilities from oil and gas to power grids to dams to the nation's water supply often owned by private companies they serve as the first line of defense and we depend on the effectiveness of their defenses the fbi confirming that the cyber criminals responsible for the pipeline attack are known as darkseid a sophisticated russian-based criminal gang that targets the data of english-speaking entities for ransom payments whether this is approved or authorized by the kremlin is increasingly irrelevant because russian operations in criminal groups has been going on for years so there's some degree of tacit approval because it's happening under their nose colonial critical to america's fuel market has not said whether it will pay the attackers ransom demands but experts warn because cyber criminals often make money off these types of attacks companies small and large which power the nation's infrastructure are at risk this is one of many warning shots we've we've been seeing this for quite some time it's going to continue so as for gas prices we're likely to see an increase of three to six maybe seven cents a gallon over the coming days but more in the southeast more in those states that have already been been affected by gas shortages where we're seeing the longer lines but if they can get the pipeline open by the weekend then it's likely will stabilize with the national price around three dollars a gallon maybe a little more that would still be the highest since 2014. israel increasing its attacks on the gaza strip rockets and missiles raining down in the middle east at least 28 palestinians including 10 children now dead israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu saying hamas will receive blows that it didn't expect nbc news foreign correspondent molly hunter joining me now from london molly i understand this new round of rocket fire tonight in tel aviv what is going on in that region right now hey allison that's right and i actually we just got an updated death toll i just want to correct i know that we had that 28 as of 5 minutes ago but we just learned that now 30 people have died in gaza because of israeli air strikes including 10 children but what is happening right now essentially is that the israeli military are warning gazans that they will take down more high-rise civilian buildings that they say are being used by hamas operatives a couple of hours ago we saw one apartment building with 80 different apartments completely flattened in gaza and hamas the militant group which runs the gaza strip is in turn saying well we have more rockets that we can fire at tel aviv so right now those updated death tolls as we said alison 30 palestinians have died including 10 children and on the israeli side at least three israelis so two women in ashkelon which is a southern israeli city earlier today one person tonight in tel aviv because of that rocket fire barrage and at least 13 people were wounded in tel aviv now 130 rockets were fired into tel aviv allison we haven't seen anything like this since 2014. uh rockets hit a bus where we believe seven people were injured uh they hit buildings they hit central tel aviv the airport ben gurion airport even stopped flights as the rockets came in now prime minister benjamin netanyahu just spoke allison literally minutes ago i just want to share some of the things that he said and the headline is is that this isn't over so he says hamas have paid and will pay a heavy price for their aggression he says we stand united against the enemy he says this campaign will take time and next time allison his defense minister benny gantz was speaking who said this is just a start calls on all israeli citizens to act responsibly he says we will return quiet and security for the long term now all of this started us and we have been watching the tension simmering in jerusalem for the last couple of days this started actually because of a court case jewish israeli settlers are trying to push out palestinian families in a neighborhood in east jerusalem and occupied east jerusalem called sheikh gerard that went to court last week that has since been pushed but that is where we saw those huge crowds of palestinians protesting and gathering around the old city and that is when we saw the israeli military storm al-aqsa mosque those pictures allison are still incredibly dramatic and a huge uh provocation to storm the holiest site one of the holiest sites for the muslim faith in the weekend before ramadan now when you combine prime minister netanyahu's words tonight and earlier today he spoke at the southern border with the fact that tomorrow is the final day of ramadan the holiest month uh for muslims you've got a very potent combination we'll be watching really carefully yeah oh no doubt it's such a devastating situation there to hear about the deaths uh the children molly thanks for updating us on what's going on tonight let's go to nbc news now correspondent simone boyce she has the latest headlines from nbcnews.com hi simon hey allison we're going to start today with some travel news news that the fda is authorizing actually we are going to start with some vaccine news you guys so the fda is authorizing the pfizer vaccine for children ages 12 to 15. the cdc is expected to give the green light tomorrow which means these young teens could start getting the shot as early as thursday and over in russia a gunman shot and killed at least nine people including seven children out of school authorities have detained the 19 year old suspect school shootings are actually pretty rare in russia this one was one of the deadliest shootings the country has seen in years well the uk is moving to ban lgbtq conversion therapy and will provide more support for people in the community who have undergone the treatments prime minister boris johnson saying these new measures will prevent abhorrent practices which can cause mental and physical harm and in north carolina a soldier at fort bragg army base is being charged with shooting another soldier who was stationed at the base 26 year old tiara nicole vincent was charged with first degree murder and shooting a firearm into occupied property the victim kilia horton was 22 years old and in houston a tiger is still on the loose yeah you heard that right a tiger the suspected owner has been arrested after the tiger was roaming around in a front yard obviously frightening residents to death he put the tiger in an suv and fled the scene luckily there have been no reported injuries i can't say that i have heard that one before allison i i don't even know how i would react if i saw a tiger in my neighborhood wow yeah they they don't hang around here all that often so i'm not sure i would either they're not regular cats here are much smaller i don't know but you do have those big rats you do have those we've got those huge the pizza rats you know it visit new york get vacs the city now offering coveted shots at some of its most popular tourist spots msnbc senior national correspondent chris jansing is in times square hey there allison new york city officials will tell you that if this city is going to fully come back tourism has to come back it's so much a part of what gives new york its energy and also feeds its economy in 2019 400 000 jobs created 70 billion dollars pumped into the economy that's why they're having these pop-ups in places where tourists go one more enticement to say hey if you come here to see the sights and you haven't been vaccinated yet you can take a listen to what a new york city tourism official had to say people have not had an opportunity to travel in more than 13 months so there's an extraordinary amount of pent-up demand and new york city is one of the most appealing places for people to want to go so if you can check off the box of vaccine if you have not gotten one make a plan to do it and by the way we're going to give you access to some of our tourist attractions at the same time as a further incentive and new york city offering other enticements because if you get a shot here you also get some freebies things like free tickets to the new york botanic garden to the bronx zoo to performances at lincoln center and one more thing they're taking something that was kind of seen as a lemon and making lemonade out of it you know restaurants really took such a hit at the beginning of the pandemic could only do outdoor dining and had to put money into outdoor tables many of them have covered spaces and heated spaces where folks can dine outdoors now the tourism officials here tourism officials here are saying we are now a cafe culture they're using that as a way to draw in tourists who may not be able to go to the original cafe culture in europe but saying it exists here or one of the great dining destinations in the world all of it to get new york city back up and running this summer should the covid vaccine be mandatory for the u.s military the navy surgeon general thinks so nbc news senior washington correspondent hallie jackson takes a deep dive into vaccine hesitancy and vaccination rates among our service members hey there allison you know the marines are the only branch releasing numbers for how many service members are actually declining the vaccine and right now those numbers show they're saying no at a higher rate than the rest of the country that kind of vaccine skepticism is being called a critical threat to our national security by some lawmakers with this push by some to get the military to make the vaccine mandatory to most people it's simply a shot but to the military it's like biological body armor at least that's how the navy surgeon general describes it this is no different than putting on a helmet or a flak jacket and a combat zone admiral bruce gillingham says more than 40 percent of the department of the navy has been vaccinated already but the latest numbers available show more than a third of all marines offered the vaccine have declined that's a higher vaccine hesitancy rate than estimates for the rest of the country is that a figure you're concerned about some individuals have decided that they want to wait and see and so for those fen sitters we are now beginning to see those individuals come and get the vaccine so i think we're seeing a positive trend the navy says some of those who declined may have gotten the vaccine on their own or might be waiting until the shot becomes mandatory for now it's not with the vaccine still under emergency use authorization we still believe that the right focus is to provide the best information available this will help our troops to make informed decisions craig asking president biden about it in his exclusive interview last month will you order service members to get the covert vaccine i don't know i'm going to leave that to the military but why not well i'm not saying i won't i think you're going to see more and more of them getting it according to the latest vaccine numbers released by the pentagon about 30 percent of the military has been vaccinated more than 600 000 troops across all branches and a quarter million more have had at least the first shot jake wood deployed to iraq and afghanistan during his time in the marines now with team rubicon he's mobilizing veterans to volunteer at vaccination sites across the country whether you like to admit it or not the potential for covet 19 to knock you out of the fight it's there we owe it to americans to ensure that we're as ready and capable to defend our interests admiral gillingham says it's critical to make sure the vaccine is available along with good information about it do you see a point where this vaccine in your medical opinion shouldn't be mandatory in this case i think that we've seen that the vaccine is very safe and so i think there's a strong argument to be made for that and that ultimately is the secretary of defense's decision do you believe that things are trending in the right direction as it comes as it relates to the navy hallie i'm cautiously optimistic that we're really making we're really beginning to turn the corner but i would emphasize we cannot take our foot off the gas and you know allison there is a precedent for making some vaccines some shots mandatory for people who are in the military but keep in mind that covid only has that emergency authorization from the fda not the full approval yet now that can change and it might change soon you already have pfizer that has filed for that full approval for example if and when that happens and more of the coping vaccines get that approval i think that's when you might see more of the conversation build around making potentially the coping vaccine mandatory school board elections becoming the latest political battleground in delaware a grassroots conservative group is going after school board seats and influence fighting to open all schools and shut down some diversity education initiatives nbc news now correspondent dasha burns is in wilmington delaware where there are school board elections today so doctor tell us more about this grassroots group and the candidates they're backing there well allison look the cultural flashpoints that we've seen at the national level are very much permeating politics at the local level and they're igniting individuals and groups interested in shaping or reshaping the future of education in america allison school board elections in delaware typically nonpartisan typically don't even get a lot of attention but the executive director of the school boards association in the state told me that this is by far the most politicized and and polarized that he's ever seen these races and a lot of locals are very engaged i talked to some people coming out of the polling place here a lot of folks said they've never voted in a school board election before and allison in this blue state that is president biden's backyard there has been an influx of conservative candidates and conservative groups stepping into these races and looking to have some influence at the local level patriots for delaware is one of those groups they've been organizing campaigning and endorsing candidates for school board races across the state we went to one of their events and spoke with one of their candidates take a listen to what she had to say where do you think there's there's too much focus right now uh right now i think that i know really with the diversity um i could fully support diversity um and everything that you know comes along with that but i think that with hiring you know a diversity um administrator and everything when some of our kids i mean two-thirds of our kids are failing in math like why is that where we really need to be focusing and alison the group patriots for delaware says they're starting with school board races but they're also eyeing other local other local seats and elections that they think are uh going to be important i asked them what they were looking for in candidates uh that they endorsed they said they asked questions about coven 19 and whether or not uh candidates opposed how the state handled the pandemic they asked about whether cancer culture and political correctness had a place in the education system and asked about how they believe schools should handle topics like raise salison dasha on the flip side here what are you hearing from the teachers union uh from other parents that other aren't part of this group uh how do they feel about what's going on there well a lot of people surprised at just how political this has become they're saying this is sort of the byproduct of the 2020 race the um blue versus red those divisions really trickling down to what typically is an apolitical kind of uh race and they're um they're interested to see what happens because there has been so much more attention here and in these races that are local where there are fewer voters it can really make a difference if one or two extra people come that haven't voted before so those those groups that on the ground organizing could potentially have a splash here tonight allison all right dasha burns in delaware always great to see you my friend kids and teens love to connect with each other online from chats to dance parties and of course video games but it is also a great place to connect with criminals who are selling all kinds of dangerous stuff nbc news senior national correspondent kate snow digs into the dark side of social media social media is all about connection but criminals want to connect too advertising everything from fake documents like driver's licenses passports and bank statements to illegal vaping liquids even cheap guns and ammo who is using social media to make sales everybody tim mackey is an associate professor of global health at uc san diego if you're a good marketer for any company you're on social media so you have to be even as a criminal a multi-channel marketer you have to have a presence his startup has a government contract to develop technology to find potentially illegal content if you're just following a hashtag like save animals or something like that you might actually get exposed to wildlife trafficking rhino horns capuchin monkeys or tiny leopard and lion cubs on facebook but some of the most dangerous activity is from drug dealers what they'll do is they'll look for hashtags that are related to people undergoing you know substance abuse crises and then they'll post it there about the availability of drugs comments on instagram offer oxycontin adderall percocet sometimes misspelling words to avoid being flagged a post showing a young woman in a hospital bed drew a comment offering fentanyl dealers ask buyers to connect with them on encrypted messaging apps then deliver ed turnan's son charlie died after buying what he thought was a prescription painkiller through a dealer on snapchat it was a counterfeit fentanyl pill my first reaction was i want to blame snapchat and i want to go get them and i want to sue them and when you think about it a little bit more deeply we made the decision that we were not going to try to get revenge but we'd be better to try to get results we first told the turnan story here on today in february they say they want to work with snapchat after that aired snapchat reached out and now they're working with the ternan family's foundation song for charlie on a campaign to warn snapchat users about the danger given everything you've been through the tragedy you've been through what do you tell parents the drug landscape has changed it's not as we were taught or a journey where you can get on the wrong path these days it's more like a minefield for our kids where their next move could be their last snapchat says we strictly prohibit using snapchat for drug transactions and illegal purposes and aggressively enforce against these violations and support law enforcement investigations in a statement facebook told us we don't allow the sale of illicit drugs endangered animals or weapons on facebook or instagram and we use technology reports from our community and reviews by our teams to enforce these policies if we find that content or an account breaks our rules we remove the content or disable the account on instagram if you search for certain hashtags like drugs a warning now pops up that what you're searching for can cause harm or death but is all that enough we believe that they would be removing a lot more if they were held liable if they couldn't be sued gretchen peters heads the alliance to counter crime online the social media companies say they're doing a lot they're screening they're monitoring is that true they're not doing a lot the number of moderators that these firms employ is just tiny we ran the numbers with facebook the number of moderators per facebook user would be the equivalent of the state of ohio having one policeman kate joins me live now kate great to see you what specific changes do these activists want to see what do they want to happen here so let me say a couple things and first i should just note that facebook hasn't responded to that comment that you just heard from gretchen peters about how many people they have uh looking at content we asked them for a comment when they didn't get back to us but separately that group gretchen's group other activists what they really want to see is a couple of things allison one they don't think they think that social media companies could stop searches of some certain key words related to illicit activity the other thing that they want is for what she mentioned liability to change they they're lobbying to change the law which exists now that protects social media companies from anyone's content on their platforms um from being sued for that content she wants to see that change too ed hernan who you saw in the piece allison he said to me i'm just hopeful that if snapchat is making some voluntary changes maybe other social media companies will start doing the same and follow their lead kate how about law enforcement what power do they have to crack down on dangerous uh or even illegal sales on social media yeah good question um i so there's no one law enforcement agency allison that regulates any of this right and that's what's so hard the content is so massive there's so much of it um that no law enforcement agency is watching over all of it i talked to the head of the dea here in new york recently about the fentanyl pills issue and he said look when we reach out to social media companies they help us when we ask snapchat or facebook or anyone for for data they help they cooperate that's not an issue but when i asked could they be doing more up front to kind of screen he said well yeah i think they could kate a really important report today uh pretty eye opening thank you so much for being with us facebook embroiled in some fresh election controversy a former employee alleging that the company ignored or took its time dealing with evidence that fake facebook accounts were undermining elections not just in the us but around the world facebook telling nbc it disagrees with that characterization so what's really going on behind the scenes at the social media giant nbc news senior international correspondent kier simmons spoke with two former employees about their experiences they are on facebook's front line policing platforms designed to give everyone a voice now they are speaking out we are paid to look at the worst of humanity every day this instagram content moderator said in an internal post before resigning last month now nbc news can reveal he is josh sklar you're reviewing you know maybe hundreds of pieces of content a day and we're talking everything from hate speech to animal mutilation to videos of people committing suicide one time you saw three child exploitation videos in the space of an hour yeah um and that wasn't even on the uh the child exploitation queue so that just that just suddenly pops up on your screen i mean that was a really bad day for two years josh worked for accenture in austin texas a contractor for facebook in 2019 staff reportedly complained of inhumane conditions there he says without moderators like him facebook would become a total like cesspool josh says they had to be actively filtering for over six hours a day one time he says a glitch allowed animal mutilation images to go online it continued for months and you try and speak out and and there's nothing yeah i don't think that that comes directly from malice i think it comes from a certain really inefficient management structure a document josh signed made mental health programs mandatory but warns he might suffer ptsd it says i monitor my own mental health i mean we're basically told like the company is not going to be held liable for these things accenture told us our people have 24 7 well-being support including proactive and on-demand counselling we ensure they have a clear understanding of the work they do sophie zang was a data scientist who worked for facebook for more than two years she felt she had the world on her shoulders i was literally random above a new hire straight out of cottage when she was fired in 2020 for poor performance for not focusing enough on her primary job she like josh wrote a scathing post i found multiple blatant attempts by foreign national governments to abuse our platform facebook's job was to make money and not to protect democracy ultimately if i was doing something that that drastically affected facebook's ad revenue i'm sure people would have noticed and code during more than two years at facebook sophie says she discovered armies of trolls working for authoritarian governments what was your worst case example azerbaijan was the worst example just because of the true size and audacity of the behavior in honduras she says she found fake pages backing the president facebook she says took a year to take the posts down while she was overwhelmed forced to choose where to defend democracy and where to let it go i was just one person i can't think of handily fix the world though i certainly tried now she believes interviews like this are what will make on facebook listen at the end of the day facebook is focused on publicity a press fire is what we called it at facebook facebook told us we fundamentally disagree with ms zhang's characterization of our priorities adding that they have already taken down more than 150 networks of coordinated inauthentic behavior facebook says a more than 200 person expert team works with hundreds of sources like the fbi corey kreider runs a not-for-profit called foxglove to demand changes she says facebook is failing its workers and its users if we're going to have a global public square a platform that billions and billions of people use it is facebook's responsibility it's direct responsibility to moderate that platform properly it's time for the bottom line our daily look at what's going on in the business world and beyond today it is all about tech 44 state attorneys general telling facebook to scrap its instagram for kids plan the ags are worried about mental health cyber bullying and privacy in this bipartisan letter to ceo mark zuckerberg saying it appears that facebook is not responding to a need but instead creating one as this platform appeals primarily to children who otherwise do not or would not have an instagram account nbc news senior media reporter dylan byers joins me now dylan this instagram for kids is designed for kids under 13. the ag's saying that kids that young aren't equipped to deal with the challenges of having social media what else did they write yeah three things the first is that the effects of instagram the effects of social media on kids that young is a primary concern for them secondly what you said the kids aren't equipped to handle it but they don't exactly know uh you know how to make the right decisions about what to share or what content to look at at that young age that they might start sharing things that invade their own privacy uh and that they might regret sharing later down the line uh and then third goes back again to this concern that facebook isn't doing enough to sort of make sure that they're protecting the safety and privacy of kids and and and so basically what you have here is widespread concern from the attorney generals that an experience that we have already collectively as a society decided is problematic for adults and for society generally is now about to affect kids in ways we can't even anticipate yeah that's a pretty good way to sum it up listen we've talked about this before right about a month ago child safety groups and lawmakers were voicing similar concerns but i have to ask right other internet companies have services for kids and thinking of youtube so why is the uh concern here specific to facebook yeah you know you're right and it's not just youtube i mean you think even about television when television was invented there were concerns about the effect it would have on society and then you know broadcast networks you created cartoons and and all of a sudden there was content for kids under the age of 13. i i think what's different here is that we're very we're keenly aware at this moment in time about the new effects that social media is having on us as a society and i think we're care we want to be very careful about the effects that that can have on young kids i think youtube might have skated through that a little more easily by virtue of the fact that they're dealing in video and that's a little more similar to television instagram other social media networks have created a whole new kind of platform for people but look if you accept the notion which i think is true that the future of media is really a social media experience then you have to anticipate that there's going to be some sort of social media experience for kids and it's a question of how do you get to a place where that experience is safe and where kids privacy and safety are protected so to that end what's facebook saying about it yeah facebook is effectively saying that they are trying to proactively make that experience better that that they're aware of of these issues and that uh they're talking to you know child you know mental health experts and and child experts and trying to ensure that those kids have a great experience and a safe experience and i think that's part of the way that facebook sees which i think is different than the way that the attorneys general see this which is it is not so much that facebook believes it is trying to create these new products solely to make more money they see that kids under the age of 13 are already accessing instagram are already accessing facebook and they want to create a safer experience for those kids and they want to give parents uh more visibility into what their kids are looking at so that they too can make sure that their kids are having a safer experience and i think it's just a matter of the ags and facebook finding common ground on this yeah oh my goodness dylan i i do not envy parents these days having to worry about keeping their kids safe on social media you know i grew up when we didn't even have the internet yet and and man things are more complicated now a lot more complicated dylan thank you [Music] if this next story doesn't put a smile on your face i don't know what will a 101 year old calls himself the happiest man on earth and he is a holocaust survivor nbc news correspondent harry smith shares his amazing story my dear new friends with a ready smile and a twinkle in his eye a man of indeterminate age holds his audience spellbound i was at the bottom of the pit so if i can make one miserable person smile i am happy eddie jacob describes himself as the happiest man in the world we wonder if perhaps he is also the wisest i do not hate anyone hate is a disease which may destroy your enemy but will also destroy you in the process his 2019 ted talk in sydney australia ended with a standing ovation when we spoke with the 101 year old recently we were equally impressed where there is life is hope if there's no more hope you're finished dismissible bromides from a harmless old timer these are not eddie jq was born eddie j kubowitz in germany he is a holocaust survivor this is me when i came back i read your book it sounds to me like you are very proud to be german very proud because i thought i live in the most civilized most cultured and certainly the most educated country in europe and i was german first and german second and jewish at home none of which mattered to a nation a people gone mad people society should not forget what happened i don't hate no one not even the german but i despise six million jews worked to death starved to death tortured and murdered what i have seen it is incredible i did this to people but they don't want to believe it i was finally transported to what became my hell on earth auschwitz my parents and sister were also transported to auschwitz and i was never to see my parents again in his book the happiest man on earth eddie jacob recounts his survival and then misery after the war until he and his wife started a family through all my ears i have learned this life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful 80 years ago i didn't think i will have a wife and children and grandchildren and great friendship and this is a blessing family he says is key as our friends friendship is priceless shared soul is half soul but shared pleasure is double truths hard earned from a man entitled to bitterness and resentment i speak about happiness i speak what life can be if you're healthy you're a multi-millionaire and that is happiness says eddie a choice available to all of us i want to make this world a better place for everyone i want everyone to take a step back and say we are here for all of us [Music] hey nbc news viewers thanks for checking out our youtube channel subscribe by clicking on that button down here and click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews show highlights and digital exclusives thanks for watching

Channel: NBC News

Views: 376,348

Keywords: NBC News NOW, nbc news, nbc, news, Andrew Brown Jr, Facebook, facebook whistleblower, facebook moderators, andrew brown jr, nbc news now, news now, nbc news now live, world news, us news

Id: iD1-ZoBUGDg

Length: 50min 38sec (3038 seconds)

Published: Tue May 11 2021