The Republican presidential candidate faced considerable blowback from GOP figures after she said she would require all users to verify their identities to use social media.
After facing considerable blowback, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is walking back her declaration that all people should be required to verify their identities to use social media platforms, after previously calling anonymous accounts a “national security threat.”
Haley, a former United Nations ambassador and former governor of South Carolina, said last week that, if she is elected president, social media companies would be required to authenticate people’s identity before allowing them to comment.
“We’re going to say that they have to make sure every person on social media is verified … everybody gets a verifiable sign so that we know exactly who they are,” Haley said in a telephone town hall with Iowa caucus-goers Friday. « What that will do is it will eliminate every Russian bot, Iranian bot and Chinese bot that’s spreading all of this misinformation, because… it is the cheapest form of warfare for them.”
Haley, who later said similar things on Fox News, also claimed that eliminating anonymity would lead to more civil discourse online among social media users.
“They’re going to start to be more accountable because they know their family and their pastor is going to see it and it’s going to be more civilized,” she said.
On Wednesday, Haley dialed back her remarks, telling CNBC that she thought “life would be more civil” if people were prohibited from posting anonymously, but that anonymous accounts would still be allowed for American citizens.
“I don’t mind anonymous American people having free speech,” Haley told the network. “What I don’t like is anonymous Russians and Chinese and Iranians having free speech.”
A representative for Haley’s campaign reiterated Wednesday that Americans have a right to free speech.
“What Nikki doesn’t support is letting the Chinese and Iranians create anonymous accounts to spread chaos and anti-American filth among our people,” the representative said. « They’re doing that as we speak and it’s a national security threat. Social media companies have to do a way better job policing that. Clearly, Ron DeSantis wants to let Chinese propaganda machines run wild on social media without any restrictions.”
Haley faced immediate criticism over the proposal from her Republican primary opponents. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has clashed with Haley throughout the primary over tech issues, noted that several of the Founding Fathers had written the Federalist Papers under a pseudonym. Florida Gov.
