[ticking]
[music playing]
CARL AZUZ: A high profile testimony on Capitol Hill
leads off our show this Wednesday.
And it concerns applications used around the world.
I'm Carl Azuz.
It's always good to have you watching.
Frances Haugen is a former employee of Facebook.
She's also been characterized as a whistleblower, someone who
publicly points out wrongdoing, because she released
internal Facebook documents that paint
the company in a bad light.
Haugen accuses Facebook of being aware that its apps
cause problems in society but not doing enough to stop it.
Specifically, according to Haugen,
those problems include the sharing of false or misleading
information, and the negative effects
that Instagram allegedly has on the body images
of women and teenage girls.
FRANCES HAUGEN: I believe Facebook's
products harm children, stoke division,
and weaken our democracy.
The company's leadership knows how
to make Facebook and Instagram safer
but won't make the necessary changes,
because they have put their astronomical profits
before people.
congressional action is needed.
They won't solve this crisis without your help.
CARL AZUZ: Haugen left Facebook earlier this year
after working there as a product manager, focused
on civic integrity issues.
After her hearing yesterday, Facebook released a statement
saying she'd been an employee for less than two years,
never attended a top level decision meeting,
and didn't work on or research the subject
matter she testified about.
The company said it didn't agree with how she characterized many
of the issues she discussed, but that it
did agree it was time to create standard rules
for the internet.
In fact, though Haugen said she came forward
at quote great personal risk, her suggestions
for addressing the problems at Facebook
were similar to what Facebook has suggested itself.
Haugen said congressional action is
needed to regulate the company.
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said
last year that more government regulation
would benefit Facebook.
Haugen opposed the idea that Facebook be broken up
into smaller companies, as critics and some lawmakers
have suggested.
Zuckerberg has also fiercely opposed that idea.
Despite strongly criticizing Facebook,
Haugen told the Wall Street Journal
that her goal wasn't to bring the company down,
but to save it.
DONNIE O'SULLIVAN: Facebook had a nightmare day on Monday
with all of its platforms going offline.
Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp were down for hours
throughout Monday.
And now the headache for the company
moves here to Washington D.C. The whistleblower who
left the company back in May will be
testifying before the Senate.
We saw earlier, in the week, she spoke to "60 Minutes",
where she outlined how she said Facebook
was damaging democracy.
And bad for elections and bad for the mental health
of children.
We have her testimony-- her opening
statement of her testimony.
She said, Facebook wants you to believe in false choices.
They want you to believe you must choose
between connecting with those you
love online and your personal privacy.
That in order to share fun photos of your kids
with old friends, you must also be
inundated with misinformation.
They want you to believe that that is just part of the deal.
And she says that she doesn't want to hurt Facebook.
She doesn't want to hurt people who are working there.
She wants to make Facebook better
and she wants to create space for social media
to be a positive force in society.
Something she says that is not happening right now.
- 10 second trivia.
Which of these cities has the worst
traffic in the United States?
New York, New York, Los Angeles, California, Boston,
Massachusetts, or Houston, Texas?
[beeping]
According to multiple new studies,
the New York region is number one
when it comes to worst traffic.
CARL AZUZ: You could say our next story is about airpods.
Not these.
We're talking about one of several electric modes
of transportation that are being tested around the world's
major cities.
This one is called uSky Transport.
It runs on a test line that's a quarter mile long,
and the company that makes it hopes to expand from there.
One observer says, this would probably be best in places
where public transportation isn't developed.
It could still add to the congestion of major cities.
The transport network can be built at a fraction
of the cost of a subway.
But it would still run around $10 million per kilometer,
according to uSky.
And the company says it has numerous certification
standards to meet, which could mean a lot of safety tests.
But here's what success would look like for uSky.
[music playing]
CARL AZUZ: Orbiting laboratory, potential space tourist
destination, movie studio, the International Space
Station continues to take on new roles
as it whirls around the Earth.
The United States has paid about $100 billion
of the orbiter's $150 billion total cost.
And America spends $3 to $4 billion every year
to maintain it.
So as it looks toward future missions
farther away from the Earth, NASA is hoping for more
private investment in the ISS.
And two of the Russian travelers who arrived there Tuesday
could be part of that.
They're shooting a feature film onboard the station.
It's the first time that's ever been done.
And because it's risky and expensive,
a critic told the New York Times it's not clear
how many films will follow.
But there are other plans for space movies shot on location.
NARRATOR: 64 years after the Soviet Union launched
the first satellite into orbit, Russia is
poised to claim another first.
The first full length movie to be filmed in space.
YULIA PERESILD: [speaking russian]
INTERPRETER: I am not afraid of anything.
I just really want us to make a good movie.
- And liftoff.
Liftoff.
Liftoff of Soyuz Ms 19 with an actress and her producer.
NARRATOR: Russian actress, Yulia Peresild,
and the film's director lifted off in a Soyuz spacecraft
from the bike nor Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
And will spend 12 days filming at the International Space
Station.
The two have been training alongside real cosmonauts
for months from centrifuge tests to parachute drills.
[siren noise]
But it was the acronyms that nearly did them in.
- [speaking russian]
INTERPRETER: During this time, they tortured us.
They didn't beat us up though but made us memorize
a lot of unknown abbreviations.
- I'm at the foot of the ladder
NARRATOR: The US won the first space race by landing
astronauts on the moon.
But it's losing this race to Hollywood-ized space.
NASA was first to announce plans last year to film
a movie on the Space Station, starring Tom Cruise.
But a few months later, Russia's Space Agency, Roscosmos,
announced its own plans.
And the head of Roscosmos later invited the three
big billionaire space barons to the filmmaker's launch,
with a special invitation for Elon Musk.
- [non-english speech] INTERPRETER: Yes.
Yes.
I already set kettle on heat.
We are awaiting him.
NARRATOR: No word if Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Richard Branson
responded to the invitation.
Bezos' Blue Origin is busy preparing to send
Hollywood royalty into space.
William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk from the Star Trek
franchise, who at 90 years old, will be the oldest
person to ever fly in space.
[music playing]
CARL AZUZ: The toy-maker Mattel has been making astronaut
Barbie dolls since 1965.
And 56 years later, the European Space Agency
has sent Barbie to zero gravity, in honor of world space week.
Space travel is expensive.
So Barbie's aboard an airplane that
simulates the zero gravity of space
by diving after a sharp climb.
The doll is modeled after Italian astronaut, Samantha
Cristoforetti, who says she hopes it inspires more
women to take up space careers.
Let's just hope Barbie doesn't get sick.
We hear those zero G flights can really test your Mattel
and plastic ain't the same as a cast iron stomach.
It's true that many dolls are tossed up and down
by those who toy with them, but zero G
can make you toss your cookies.
Hopefully, Barbie won't take it queasy
lest critics call her Barf-ie.
I'm Carl Azuz.
North Pike High School, we see you watching from the Summit.
That's Summit, Mississippi.
YouTube.com/CNN is the place to request a mention on our show.