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White House Representatives Forbidden by a Federal Judge from Contacting Social Media Companies; Using New Threads App, Meta Criticizes Twitter; TweetDeck Will Become Pay-Only on Twitter; Both Musk and Zuckerberg Up for a Cage Match; Families will Visit Parkland Shooting Premises Today; For hours, Roller Coaster was Upside Down at Wisconsin Festival; Diagnosed First CTE in a Professional Female Athlete. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 05, 2023 - 10:30:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: All right. This morning an important ruling that deals with misinformation online and also free speech. A federal judge is blocking the Biden administration from asking a social media company to take down certain types of content from their platforms. This preliminary injunction could hinder the White House fight against misinformation on the election, things like COVID vaccines. The government can still communicate with the companies on efforts to curb illegal activity and address national security threats.

CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich joins us now. So, how is this going to work exactly?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: So, this federal judge essentially banning key government agencies, about 10, including the FBI, the CDC, the Justice Department, the State Department. As well as more than 12 key administration officials including the White House press secretary and the surgeon general from communicating with social media companies which are Facebook, Instagram, WeChat, TikTok and many, many more, except if there is any illegal activity or national security concerns that they might see.

But this really stems back to a 2022 lawsuit that was filed by two Republican attorneys general out of Missouri and Louisiana who say that the Biden administration colluded with social media companies, basically pushing them to address content and potentially suppress content that dealt with COVID-19 misinformation, Hunter Biden, the president himself, and election integrity.

Now, the White House is saying that they are having the Justice Department look into this to see what their options may be, but the White House official is saying that they did this in the best interest of the country, that this was not an effort to collude, and ultimately social media companies have a responsibility to look at the type of content that they have on their platforms, but that it is up to the social media companies to identify and decide what to do with that information.

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But this judge has not yet ruled on this case. Judge Doughty, he's a Trump appointee, but he says if these claims by these plaintiffs prove to be true, this would be the most -- I'm quoting here, "The most massive attack against free speech in U.S. history." So, we have to see what the final ruling is. However, this is a win, so far, for these states that are suing the administration.

BERMAN: What's interesting is there are illegal questions about whether free speech rights exist within platforms that are created by private companies. These are private platforms where historically free speech rights don't necessarily extend. So, what do these social media platforms say?

YURKEVICH: They are not saying much right now. We've reached out to all of them for comment. The only one getting back to us, Meta, saying that they have no comment on this issue. But you wonder, how do they feel about this? Do they like the "Partnership" with the federal government, or would they rather the federal government stay out of their content? We know that social media companies have issues policing their own content, whether it's misinformation or harmful information for teens. But we haven't heard from them yet. It will remain to be seen what they say and how they feel about this, but they are not named in this injunction, which is interesting.

BERMAN: Yes, I think they feel different ways at different times --

YURKEVICH: Yes.

BERMAN: -- depending on the issues. Vanessa Yurkevich, this is one to watch for sure. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Speaking of social media, Elon musk makes another unpopular change to Twitter and META's Mark Zuckerberg is swooping in to compete with Twitter. He's offering a new alternative with an app called Threads.

I want to discuss this more with Sara Fischer, CNN Media Analyst and senior media reporter for Axios. All right. First of all, how will Threads work?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST AND SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER, AXIOS: Well, likely similar to Twitter. If you take look at the screenshots that have come up in the app store, it looks like a forum where people can post their comments and you can reply to them, re-post them, like them. It's very, very similar. It's mostly text based, which is new for Meta. They are really focused, especially right now, on video and pictures.

And so, I think it's going to work relatively similar to Twitter. The key difference here, Sara, is that you're going to be able to log in through your Instagram account. Now, that makes a huge difference because it means that Meta can pull from over a billion Instagram users worldwide to start to seed a user base. There have been dozens of companies that have tried to take on Twitter, especially now that it's going through a lot of struggles, but none of them have been able to really build up a huge base. Meta could be the first to do it because of their Instagram reach.

SIDNER: All right. So, Elon Mush is, sort of, annoyed his Twitter users again. First came the demand for the blue check, and now it's telling Twitter users they have to pay for the, sort of, TweetDeck. Why is he making these changes? Is this about money trying to generate more?

FISCHER: Yes, and it's not really working is the problem, right? So, Instagram, Twitter, all these companies are ad-based social media platforms. That means they require a lot of impressions to be served, meaning you have to consume a ton of content to put those ads around it. But as you know, Sara, rants have been uncomfortable with Twitter under Elon Musk's ownership. Those are "New York Times" report that suggested ad revenue was down 59 percent in April this year compared to last before Elon Musk took over.

And so, what he's trying to do is scramble to make more money by charging people subscriptions, $8 a month if you want to be verified on Twitter, which means you can consume more tweets and you can send a lot more private DMs. But the data that I've see suggests that hasn't been super successful. You know, if you look at other platforms, Snapchat for instance, says that in it's first year, they had 4 million subscribers since that Snapchat+. I think the latest numbers that the third party put out was that Twitter has, you know, in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers, it's not going to be enough to offset that massive advertising loss.

SIDNER: There have been so many that you've alluded to. You've got Mastodon, and Spill, and Bluesky, and alternatives to Twitter that really haven't taken off. Do you -- is there a real possibility that this could be a threat, that Zuckerberg's idea could be a threat to Twitter?

FISCHER: Well, Meta has tried to copy so many apps and ideas, and half the time they fail, sometimes they work. But I think what makes this one unique is that you already have that pre-installed base of Instagram users that can just simply log on to this new app with the new credentials. Meta can do a ton of in-app marketing to push people towards Threads. And so, I think that there actually is a possibility that this could be a competitive threat to Twitter.

The one thing I'm watching though for, Sara, is that Meta has repeatedly said that they want to get out of politics, they want to get out of news. In part because it creates so many regulatory headaches to police the content around that sort of topic. This is going to be putting them right where they don't want to be, which is at the heart of conversations around live events, politics, news, et cetera.

So, the only thing that I think could really relieve the pressure from Twitter is that Meta starts to get involved in this and says, you know what, this is putting us back where were in 2016.

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Where we were too much at the heart of political discourse. We want to get out of it again.

SIDNER: OK. And I want to quickly ask you about this because I can't help myself. Zuckerberg has accepted Elon Musk's challenge to a literal cage match. What the heck is going on here? This is almost perfect for social media, isn't it?

FISCHER: Yes, but it's ridiculous. I mean, we shouldn't have two high powers, you know, executives that are trying to duke it out in a cage match. Like, if you want to show your competitor that you're stronger, like, go beat them in the business world. I think this is insane. But to give you some context, both of them do Brazilian jujitsu, so both of them have a little bit of experience fighting and training. And Elon Musk, sort of, proposed it. Zuck has accepted it. And if does go through, sure, this is going to be super viral for both platforms. I just think it's weird business move. You don't often see two high profile billionaires fighting it out in a cage catch match.

SIDNER: That is correct. It is bananas. Thank you so much, Sara Fischer, for your reporting.

Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Coming up for us, trapped upside down and stuck there for hours. Terrifying moments for people on a fair ride. Coming up next, how the whole thing unfolded, we'll be right back.

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BOLDUAN: "On Our Radar" this hour, renewed violence in the Middle East. Israel has launched new air strikes after it says Palestinian militants fired rockets from Gaza. It also comes as Israel says, it has ended its largest military operation in more than 20 years in the West Bank City of Jenin.

This video is showing you troops leaving Jenin late last night. The Palestinians say, the operation left at least 12 people dead and more than 100 others injured. UNICEF is reporting that at least three children have been killed in this round of violence.

Today, some families and survivors will get their first look inside the site of the Parkland school massacre. Officials say that tours will be given of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, the families of victims requested to see where their loved ones spent their final moments. 17 people were killed and 17 others injured when a gunman opened fire in 2018. The building's been inaccessible and protected as a crime scene since the killings and as the trials were going on. The tours begin just after a jury acquitted the school resource officer of charges related to not running to help the students during the attack. And a wildfire in Southwestern Washington State has forced hundreds of people to evacuate. Firefighters have been battling the Tunnel 5 fire since Sunday when it broke out about an hour away from Portland. So far, more than 500 acres have burned. Officials say, record heat and windy conditions have made it quite hard for firefighters to contain the blaze. The cause of it still under investigation.

John.

BERMAN: So, terrifying moments at a county fair in Wisconsin. This roller coaster got stuck leaving riders hanging upside down for hours. Dozens of people were involved in the efforts to rescue everyone.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov has the details. You know, this is the one thing that's not supposed to happen with these rides.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is why I personally don't take roller coaster rides. But, yes, John. Eight thrill seekers got a little more terror than they probably bargained when this fireball (ph) roller coaster broke down near the top of the loop at the Forest County Fair in Crandon, it's about 100 miles northwest of Green Bay, Wisconsin. A cellphone footage captured the terrifying moments as riders were left hanging upside down for hours.

The local fire chief said that there was some sort of a mechanical failure even though that ride had been recently inspected. Now, because the ride was so high up, especial equipment and rescue teams from three districts were called in to help. It just so happened that an off-duty firefighter with specialized rope rescue training happen to be on the scene. He helped advise the Crandon Fire Department and possible rescue options.

Eventually, this ladder truck with the 100-foot platform arrived and was able to reach the passengers. The fire chief said that emergency services were called to the location at around 1:35 p.m. local time. Now, the first ride goer got back to solid ground at 3:20 p.m., and the last person reached the ground at around 5:01 p.m., more than three hours after the ride stalled. 10 vehicles, nine ambulances, 50 people from three counties helped the rescue. Authorities say, nine people were treated on site by medics and one was taken to the hospital. John.

BERMAN: The video is extraordinary. Just watching those people hanging upside down for hours and hours. I mean, their hair -- you can see their hair flowing. What must they have been thinking during all that time? Lucy Kafanov, I can see your discomfort. I can sense your discomfort. You've been covering this. I'm glad they're all OK. Thank you very much for that.

Sara.

SIDNER: Scientists say, they've identified the world's first case of CTE in a professional female athlete. Next, what the discovery could mean for millions of women and girls who play contact sports.

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SIDNER: Scientists in Australia say they have diagnosed the first CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, in a professional female athlete. An autopsy shows Australian football league player, Heather Anderson, had low-stage CTE when she died by suicide at 28 years old last November.

CNN Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard is joining us now live. Before this case, CTE had really only been diagnosed in male professional athletes. What are you learning about this disease occurring in women, and is this a game changer?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: That's right, Sara. You know, so far, we've only known about a handful of reported cases of CTE in female athletes. This is the first time we're hearing of such a report in a professional athlete.

[10:55:00]

And what we can expect moving forward, as we see more women participating in contact sports that historically have been male dominated like football, like boxing, then we can expect to see more CTE cases just like we see among male athletes. And what CTE is associated with is specifically blows to the head, repeated head trauma, that we tend to see in contact sports, and CTE itself causes the death of nerve cells in the brain.

And that's why, sadly, you need to perform an actual autopsy of the brain after a person dies to diagnose them with CTE. And that's exactly what scientists did at the Australian Sports Brain Bank to diagnose Heather Anderson, Sara.

SIDNER: Jacqueline Howard, this is an important new development. Thank you very much for that.

HOWARD: Yes.

SIDNER: John.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no, no, no.

BERMAN: Me?

SIDNER: Well, I'm just going to take it. In just minute, nearly four years after he shot and killed 23 people in a racist attack at an El Paso Walmart, the federal sentencing hearing will begin for the man who pulled the trigger. While the death penalty is not an option now, it could be later.

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