ago. this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening. from one extreme to the next just months after wild fires marched across the drought-stricken west, what experts call a bomb cyclone has brought damaging rains to california. the wild weather swing a dramatic and deadly illustration of climate change at its most severe. many forced to evacuation as torrents of water roared through communities. areas burned by recent wild fires at particular risk. it is all a part of a triple weather threat gripping the country this evening parts of illinois and missouri already pounded by deadly tornados and millions living in the northeast right now bracing for a nor easter, expected to bring high winds and flooding steve patterson is watching it all. reporter: tonight the west blasted by the destructive power of a bomb cyclone. a swift and massive drop in air pressure combined with an influx of extra tropical moisture causing a deluge of rain and high winds. 8 million und
Forecast, this is far from over. lester steve patterson in california tonight, thanks. we re getting a revealing look behind the curtain at facebook nbc news has obtained tens of thousands of pages of the company s internal documents first shared with the sec and congress tonight mark zuckerberg is calling that release a selective use of leaked documents to paint a false picture of his company jake ward has the latest reporter: for years, facebook has been studying practically every social ill that plagues its platforms from misinformation to threats of violence. and newly revealed documents show the company appears to be at war with itself as to what should be done about it in a post called, what is collateral damage on an internal message board, an employee says when it comes to misinformation, facebook s core mechanics allow potentially dangerous and harmful content to flourish divisive posts and comments, researchers warn, seem to be better for business. researchers created
Midwest. where the storms are headed. also tonight the bombshell facebook papers thousands of internal documents suggesting the social media giant knew it was being used to spread misinformation and harmful content, but ignored red flags from its own employees. the company defending itself our nbc news exclusive with a top facebook executive moments away. the shooting at an idaho mall video from inside. multiple people injured, including a police officer what we re learning. major news on kids and vaccines moderna announcing its covid shot is safe and effective in kids 6 to 11 it comes on the eve of a highly anticipated fda panel meeting on pfizer s vaccine will they recommend it for younger kids the first eye witness account of the tragedy on the set of an alec baldwin movie. what happened moments before and after the fatal shot and the moving tribute to america s unknown soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice 100 years
Facebook s rules and recommendations sent them one set up to follow conservative news got conspiracy recommendations after only two days. we asked facebook head of content policy whether these problems whether these problems can be fixed there will always be challenges in the social media landscape, just like you will never stop abuse in the offline world and you ll never stop abuse in the online world, you can get better at detecting it and preventing it. reporter: until whistleblower frances haugen turned these documents over to the sec and congress, much of this research was unknown. reporter: why should the public not get to see everything that you know about us our research is not secret in fact, we have a research program with more than a thousand people, and we publish hundreds of research articles every year. reporter: in this case, it took someone actually turning over documents for us to see a huge amount of what you know that we didn t know about
Before. there is research that we do that is peer-reviewed. some research we do internally to help drive what our features will look like some of that is proprietary, but we do share research findings on very important areas. reporter: we examined the documents, but some of them are very specific for example, mark zuckerberg told congress we are proactively identifying i think it is 94% of the hate speech we end up taking down. reporter: but internal research suggestions less than 5% is removed. facebook says that s because of different metrics. when the company uses specific percentages like that, that certainly goes beyond what is actionable statements if they are in fact inaccurate. reporter: and the sec can go after not just the company but individuals, executives mark zuckerberg could be held responsible. under federal security laws, if the sec can prove its case, yes. reporter: the sec can in a way lay the groundwork for whole new laws that can change the indust