Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley called anonymous social media posts a “national security threat” on Tuesday and proposed that all users be made to verify their identities online.
“What we need to remind Americans is anti-Semitism is no different than racism. They are both evil, and we don’t want to have that happen, but let’s go to the core of this,” said Haley during an appearance on Fox News:
Anti-Semitism was always bubbling underneath the surface, but now we’re seeing this massive exaggeration of it, but no one is talking about why. The truth is, if you look at social media, the misinformation and the dramatic sides of social media are instigating this. Why? Because it’s being pushed by Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.
It is why when I get into office, the first thing we have to do, social media accounts— social media companies, they have to show America their algorithms. Let us see why they’re pushing what they’re pushing. The second thing is every person on social media should be verified by their name.
First of all, it’s a national security threat. When you do that, all of a sudden people have to stand by what they say, and it gets rid of the Russian bots, the Iranian bots, and the Chinese bots. And then you’re gonna get some civility when people know their name is next to what they say, and they know their pastor and their family member’s gonna see it. It’s gonna help our kids and it’s gonna help our country.
The proposal received backlash on social media, with Republican critics accusing Haley of taking inspiration from the Chinese Communist Party.
“No wonder she was so friendly with the CCP,” reacted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, while DeSantis’ rapid response director Christina Pushaw tweeted, “I am no lawyer but isn’t this blatantly unconstitutional? Free speech includes anonymous speech.”
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, journalist Glenn Greenwald, and other social media users pointed out that the founding fathers had written both anonymously and pseudonymously — and that Haley’s proposal would have curbed the fight for American independence — while a number of lawyers, including tech lawyer Preston Byrne, said the policy would be unconstitutional.
This is disgusting. https://t.co/7AMtE214YH
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) November 14, 2023
Haley’s Republican primary arch-enemy Vivek Ramaswamy also condemned the proposal.
“This is a flagrant violation of the Constitution and straight out of the Democrats’ playbook,” he wrote. “Any politician who thinks it’s OK for the government to use the private sector as its censorship bureau shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the White House.”