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Schools Sue Social Media Platforms; Theft in San Francisco Stores; Barbenheimer Saving the Box Office. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 25, 2023 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:30:06]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.

A wave of new legal action against social media companies in the midst of what the U.S. surgeon general has called a youth mental health crisis in this country.

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DR. VIVEK MURTHY, SURGEON GENERAL: Too often kids on social media are exposed to extreme, inappropriate and harmful content. Indeed nearly half of adolescents are saying that social media now makes them feel worse about their bodies.

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HARLOW: A surgeon general report warns teenagers are spending an average of three and a half hours on social media every day. Every day. And he says it's resulting in depression, anxiety, poor sleep, eating disorders and cyberbullying.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Last week the American Federation of Teachers, the nation's second largest teacher's union, issued a report calling on social media organizations to rein it in, citing the dramatic disruption in the teaching and learning ecosystems of our nation's schools.

Well, now, hundreds of school districts across the country are actually suing the parent companies of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat. Why?

Joining us now is attorney Marc J. Bern, who is representing 40 school districts, including the Aspen School District and their lawsuit against big tech companies. Also CNN's senior media analyst Sara Fischer with us as well.

So, Mark, when it comes to where we begin here regarding social media use among kids, you've said that, quote, there is no -- we have an epidemic that is no different than opioids. Can you explain to us what you mean by that? MARC J. BERN, ATTORNEY, ASPEN SCHOOL DISTRICT V. SOCIAL MEDIA:

Absolutely. The major social media companies have written their algorithms to intentionally addict children, school-aged children, to their algorithms. This is no different than drug companies that sold opioids and claim that they were not addictive. Certainly the social media companies are doing the exact same thing.

HARLOW: It's a really interesting argument. I think one of the differences, Sara, is the lawsuits against the opioid companies, Purdue Pharma and others, they could point to - they could point to deaths. Here you're not pointing, largely, to deaths, and I - I wonder what you think -- given all of the litigation so far against these big social media companies, even up to the Supreme Court, on separate section 230 matters, just hasn't really proved successful.

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, that's in part because, to your point, Poppy, Section 230 is a law that shields these big tech platforms from being sued or held accountable for some of the third- party content on their sites. However, it doesn't mean that these platforms shouldn't be held accountable for using resources more responsibly. And I think that points to what we're seeing with this lawsuit.

You know, Instagram has rolled out a bunch of tools to combat bullying. Snapchat has taken the fentanyl crisis really seriously, rolled out tools to prevent some of the messaging that causes that. YouTube is trying to change its content moderation algorithms to stopping radicalization. But all in all, I think what mental health experts are warning, included all the way up to the surgeon general, is that this is just not working, that teens are not experiencing the same level of joy and optimism that social platforms thought could bring them when they first rolled out.

HARLOW: I do want to read what Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram and now threads, says. Reports from the CDC and others point to growing academic pressure, concerns of safety in schools, lingering impact of the pandemic and limited access to mental health care as key factors. We want to work with the schools and academic experts to better understand these issues and how social media companies can provide teens with support they need.

Marc, what do you say to that? I mean you're suing them?

BERN: Well, I -- clearly they have a desire to defend their actions. And that is not going to work with respect to what they have said. This is -- this is an epidemic with respect to our school-age children. Children, as we heard a few moments ago, are spending over three hours a day on social media. You have various platforms, such as Snapchat, where children can find out exactly what their peers are doing virtually at any moment. And if they're left out.

So, we see this cyberbullying, the children becoming very adept at watching other kids, but it's affecting them on a moment-to-moment basis, and it is something that the large social media platforms can certainly control to at least a degree.

HILL: So, Marc --

BERN: When the internet first came out ten years ago or so, or a little more, there were about 300,000 users.

[08:35:03]

Today there are 4 billion users in the internet. This is something that must be controlled or our school-age children are going to continue to suffer, and suffer dramatically.

HILL: So, Marc, really quickly, before I let you go, one thing that stood out to me is that you're doing this on behalf on these school districts, right, who are saying, we are having to deal with this. Why do you believe that this is going to be a more effective lawsuit going against these companies coming at it from that angle as opposed to from a parent who says, I can't control this with my kid. I don't know how to break through this algorithm. Or from a child who says the same thing. Why is it the school district?

BERN: There -- are certainly - certainly there are lawsuits involving parents and children. But we believe that the school districts, whose budgets are continually being stressed, and now have to put out much, much more money just to combat the social -- the mental illness caused by social -- by these social media companies. And we believe that the school districts are entitled to get that money back.

And so just as in opioids, it's an abatement cause of action where we're trying to get the additional money back for them. In a small district like Aspen, they have had to put on three new full-time health care professionals, which is going to further stress the budget. All of the schools in this country need more money and they do not need more money -- they do not need to be spending more money every day on these types of problems. But they certainly are.

HARLOW: Sara, the insurance companies were successful in taking on big tobacco in the '90s because they said you marketed to kids and you knew it. And those that went after the opioid creators and distributors were successful because they said, doctors, you knew it was addictive, and companies you knew it was addictive and you did me anyway. Could that same lodge work if this is taken all the way up to the higher courts against social media companies? You knew about addictiveness, we know it's harmful because of x, and therefore you're liable?

FISCHER: It could - it could if there's proof that they knew about it and they didn't do anything to stop it. The challenge, Poppy, and this is where I think some of these lawsuits are going to run into a little bit of a road bump, is that these tech platforms are doing so much right now and it might be for genuine reasons or it might be for PR reasons to shield them against lawsuits, but they're doing so much to address these concerns, building wellness centers. You know, there's check-ins for different kids. A lot of them are even building separate products just for kids to try to address this. You know, Facebook has Messenger for kids. YouTube has YouTube kids. And so I think the hard thing about that defense is that with the tobacco companies they didn't have much that they could point to, to say they were doing. Social media companies now, for the past five years, have been trying to tackle this problem.

HARLOW: It's really interesting.

HILL: It is fascinating and certainly not the last time we'll be talking about it.

Sara Fischer, Marc J. Bern, good to have you both here this morning. Thank you.

BERN: Thank you.

HILL: Stores in San Francisco are locking up all kinds of things.

HARLOW: No kidding.

HILL: Not just baby formula. Look at this, coffee -- ground coffee, frozen food. All of this in response to a spike in shoplifting. And, wow, what our cameras captured while they were rolling in the store for this story.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did that guy pay?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come again?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did that guy pay?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn't pay?

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[08:42:14]

HILL: New this morning, retailers in San Francisco are installing unprecedented security measures. All there to protect against what's being called rampant shoplifting in the city in recent months. Exit gates, chain locks, as you see right there, key locks, as you're seeing in this image, all to prevent thieves from walking out the door with the merchandise. Even mustard.

CNN's Kyung Lah joining us now live this morning with more on this story.

It is - I am floored by what you found, Kyung.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's hard to imagine barbecue sauce behind plexiglass. And these are measures, Erica, that if you live in a big city you're not unused to seeing where you have to call the attendant to open up the plexiglass. But these chains and locks are fairly unprecedented. And we're talking about neighborhoods where there are multi-million dollar homes lining the streets. And so we wanted to figure out why.

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LAH (voice over): Richie Greenberg walked into a San Francisco Walgreens when he saw in the frozen food section this.

RICHIE GREENBERG, SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENT: Chains. Heavy chains that went from padlock to padlock on both sides of the doors. And this was bizarre. Something I've never seen before. This is just more icing on the cake telling us that rampant crime is - is -- has become a regular part of life.

LAH: So typical that in the 30 minutes we were at this Walgreens we watched three people, including this man, steal.

LAH (on camera): Did that guy pay?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come again?

LAH: Did that guy pay?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

LAH: He didn't pay?

LAH (voice over): Walgreens says this Richmond neighborhood store, with aisles of products like mustard locked behind plexiglass has the highest theft rate of all their nearly 9,000 U.S. stores, hit more than a dozen times a day. When thieves turn to cleaning out ice cream and frozen burritos, workers grew so frustrated they resorted to the chains. They were ordered down by corporate because of the negative messaging.

But Walgreens isn't the only retailer impacted in San Francisco.

LAH (on camera): You have to ask an employee for help.

LAH (voice over): At this store, frozen food is controlled with a cable lock. Fake eyelashes locked behind plexiglass, along with lotion and nail polish.

At another grocery store, $14 bags of coffee, under lock and key.

LAH (on camera): What is this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. I don't understand why coffee - I don't know but --

LAH: Oh, here she is. Oh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's become kind of like a policed state in San Francisco. I don't know how else to describe it.

MARJAN PHILHOUR, SMALL BUSINESS AND COMMUNITY ADVOCATE: It's not part of city life. It's not part of the way people should be living, right? And that includes folks who are committing the crimes. [08:45:04]

LAH (voice over): Marjan Philhour, mom of three, small business and community advocate, says these visible problems in her city are leading to renewed activism driven by residents like the recall of the city's district attorney last year.

PHILHOUR: I think what we've seen, especially in the past couple of years, is less tolerance, more exasperation, and more movement to action by everyday San Franciscans to change how their city is run. It's not enough right now. But there is a change and I think ultimately we will get there.

LAH: San Francisco City Supervisor Matt Dorsey, former police spokesman and recovering drug addict, sees the rampant shoplifting as a systemic problem, from city leaders, to an under staffed police force, to the fentanyl crisis.

MATT DORSEY, SAN FRANCISCO SUPERVISOR: When you're seeing that level of retail theft, that tends to be subsistence level retail theft. People are -

LAH (on camera): People who are hungry?

DORSEY: People are hungry. There is a level of addiction playing out in many parts of our city. It's happening at levels we really haven't seen in San Francisco.

What I'm hearing from my residents and what I'm hearing from San Franciscans is, it's time for tough love. We are not doing any addict in this city favors by enabling behavior that is potentially deadly in ways we have never seen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: In a statement, Walgreens talked to CNN and said that it is focused on preventative measures, safety, but that retail crime remains one of the company's top challenges, especially in San Francisco.

But here's something to keep in mind, Poppy and Erica, that the crime rates for property crime and violent crime at the end of 2022 were actually lower than it was before the pandemic. The challenge for the city here is that this sort of crime, this widespread sense of retail theft, is something that is so widely felt.

Poppy. Erica.

HARLOW: Yes.

HILL: Yes. Widely felt. And an interesting point, too, in your piece about -- a lot of it's being about subsistence, right? So, it's food and it's those ,kind of necessities.

Kyung, great reporting. Appreciate it. Thank you.

LAH: You bet.

HARLOW: So, did the success of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" save movie theaters? Not exactly. Harry Enten is here with the numbers.

HILL: All you needed was one weekend.

HARLOW: Just that.

HILL: Just one weekend.

HARLOW: It's fine.

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[08:50:50]

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We come to this place for magic.

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HARLOW: Oh, you remember that. If you've been to an AMC movie theater you've likely seen Nicole Kidman's enchanting invitation aimed at drawing moviegoers back into theaters after they were shuttered during the pandemic. But it turns out nothing was able to do that like, you guessed it, Barbenheimer.

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten here with this morning's number.

Good morning.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Good morning.

HARLOW: Big weekend.

ENTEN: Huge weekend. Huge weekend.

All right, this morning's number is one. It's - Barbenheimer, in the domestic box office, marked the first time ever two films debuted with at least $80 million in box office the same weekend. So, it was a huge weekend. A lot of folks saw "Barbie," a few - slightly fewer folks saw "Oppenheimer." But the fact is, both films did tremendously in the box office.

HILL: So, that's great. So you say this is the first time that this has actually happened.

ENTEN: Yes.

HILL: Which is a big deal.

ENTEN: Yes.

HILL: Is one weekend enough to change the fate of movie theaters everywhere, Harry? ENTEN: Well, I would say, probably -- not necessarily. You know, if

we're looking at the 2023 domestic box office to date, what we see is, yes, we are up year over year, 16 percent in the domestic box office. But we are still well south of 2019, right, where we're down 19 percent. So, no, we haven't made it back.

But I wanted to take us down a little bit towards memory lane and give you an understanding, you know, this idea of a twin bill. Past twin bills. This isn't the first time two great movies debuted in the same year. Look, 1980, "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Shining" debuted. 1984, "Ghostbusters" and "Gremlins." In 2008, "The Dark Knight" and "Mamma Mia," which strikes me quite similarly sort of the "Barbie" and -

HILL: They really go well together.

ENTEN: Yes. You could find some - anything you want.

HARLOW: Like "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer."

ENTEN: That's exactly right. Any of these your favorite?

HARLOW: I can't even tell you -

HILL: Out of all these pairings?

HARLOW: I -- how many of these movies have you seen?

HILL: Almost all of them. I haven't seen "The Dark Knight." I have seen -- oh, no, not "The Shining." I don't do scary movies.

HARLOW: Me too.

HILL: No. Never.

HARLOW: Only "Ghostbusters" and "Mamma Mia." I'm terrible.

HILL: Well, we have a lot of things to catch up on, you and me.

HARLOW: We have a lot.

HILL: We've got a long list.

Harry, thank you.

HARLOW: Thank you, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

HILL: Just ahead here, a really inspiring story. Cal Dobbs just ran nearly 3,000 miles across the country from California to Florida. He's the first reported transgender person to do it. So, why did he decide to make this trek he's been dreaming of since the age of 10? He'll tell us.

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HILL: A triumphant finish for Cal Dobbs, the first transgender person to complete a coast-to-coast run, 2,800 miles over the span of four months. Cal was running to raise money to fight the hundreds of anti- trans bills that have been introduced in state legislature. And we spoke with him about this incredible accomplishment.

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HILL: I was really struck - you know, something that you said in a statement. You said, I ran across America because I love to run. I also happen to be transgender. Those things are not related but my humanity, passions and personhood have been publicized by far-right extremists. You went on to say, athletics are a primary target.

What has that been like?

CAL DOBBS, EDUCATOR AND ENDURANCE ATHLETE: That's right.

HILL: What has that been like for you? I feel like we -- we talk about this a lot, but I don't know that we often hear as much as we should from people who are directly impacted by these attacks.

DOBBS: That's right. I so appreciate this question. We know that transpeople in sports is sort of the hot topic. And a lot of the anti- trans rhetoric centers around the buzzword of like science and biology. But the science proves that transgender people, specifically transwomen who are what a lot of this legislation targets, have no demonstrated biological advantage in sports. Something I love to say is, you know, people are like, transwomen are dominating sports. And I say, can you name three transwomen dominating sports right now?

The politicization of transgender identities is something new. We are sort of the new political scapegoat. I, myself, am a transgender athlete. I think that playing sports, running, having fun, that is something that all people should be able to enjoy. I think there's something deeply American about sports, as we know. And, yes.

HILL: Well, and sports can be a way, truly, to bring people together as we've seen over generations.

DOBBS: Absolutely.

HILL: I know you're really hopeful too that with this run that you would be meeting people along the way with whom you could have conversations. Did you have those moments?

DOBBS: Absolutely. And what I found running across some of the states with the most hostile, political views on transpeople is that policies do not reflect people. I think that the majority of people are relatively ignorant about transgender identities. And that is human. None of us were raised with the -- with the tools to be able to articulate these things.

Myself, I came out of trans in my early 20s and I had never met a transgender person that I was aware of. I didn't have the language to describe my identity. So, we're all sort of learning together on this.

You know, and I think there's sort of a societal reconciliation with some antiquated beliefs about gender that hurt all of us. And I find that most people are very ready to have those conversations. Most people are excited to learn and meet people who are different from them. And as an educator myself, ignorance is simply an opportunity to educate. And I find that very galvanizing.

HILL: Yes, I think you make such a great point that when we actually talk to people it is amazing what those conversations can be, what they can lead to and what they can reveal.

Cal Dobbs, congratulations on a very impressive feat.

DOBBS: Thank you.

HILL: Feat. I didn't even mean to do that, but thee you go, I did it, on that run.

[09:00:00]

DOBBS: Great pun. Great pun.

HILL: I know you have a lot of important work ahead of you as well. Thank you.

DOBBS: Thank you.

HILL: Twenty-eight hundred miles. No small feat.

HILL: No small feat.

HILL: Congratulations to Cal.

And thank you for starting your morning with us. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" is now.