Republican presidential candidate calls for name verification on social media profiles
Republican presidential candidate and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has called for name verification on all social media profiles, citing anonymous accounts and bots spreading misinformation as a national security threat.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Haley stated, "When I get into office, the first thing we have to do, social media companies, they have to show America their algorithms. Let us see why they're pushing, what they're pushing."
Haley attributed the spread of misinformation on social media to Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, and emphasized the need to address this issue as a national security threat.
During a Tuesday morning appearance on the "Ruthless Podcast," Haley first raised the idea of name verification on social media, stating, "This is a national security threat. They are giving the narrative to the American people, so you've got college kids everywhere on campuses thinking that they are fighting the occupation of Gaza. There are no Israelis in Gaza. There are no Jewish people in Gaza. There is only Hamas and Gaza."
On Wednesday, during an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Haley clarified that she was not calling for a ban on Americans posting anonymously on social media sites.
"I don't mind anonymous American people having free speech — what I don't like is anonymous Russians and Chinese and Iranians having free speech," Haley said.
"Russia, Iran and China, North Korea too, know that the cheapest form of warfare is to spread misinformation."
Haley's remarks were instantly met with pushback from her rivals.
On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on "The Glenn Beck Program" that "forcing disclosure of names and registration, that's what China has done… that is totally inappropriate for the United States of America."
DeSantis went on to say there's a tradition of anonymous political speech in the U.S., noting that the Federalist Papers were published anonymously. "I wasn't surprised she said it because I think that's who she is. But it was totally out of bounds of what would be acceptable in the Republican Party," he added.
A spokesperson for the Haley campaign said "Americans have a right to free speech, including having anonymous accounts on social media. What Nikki doesn't support is letting the Chinese and Iranians create anonymous accounts to spread chaos and anti-American filth among our people."
"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," the spokesperson added.
DeSantis and Haley have been battling for second place in early-voting states. Recent polling shows Haley has had some momentum coming out of a series of strong debate performances, bringing her to a tie with DeSantis in the latest Des Moines Register/NBC polling, which was published after the first two debates, but before the third debate.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who champions himself as a proponent of free speech, also joined in the criticism of Haley's proposal, calling it "disgusting" and a "flagrant violation of the Constitution and straight out of the Democrats' playbook."
Ramaswamy, like DeSantis, brought up the Federalist Papers and said on X, "Alexander Hamilton, John Jay & James Madison wrote the Federalist Papers under pseudonym. Here's what they would say to @NikkiHaley if they were alive: get your heels off my neck & go back to England."
Conservatives have long advocated for reduced censorship of their opinions on social media. This is part of the ongoing discussion about the extent to which tech companies should be responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation, particularly by foreign entities.
In September, the State Department released a report stating that Beijing continues to spend billions of dollars each year on efforts to manipulate information. These efforts involve acquiring stakes in foreign media, censoring content, sponsoring online influencers, and securing agreements that promote unlabeled Chinese government content. The U.S. warned that this could result in "less global freedom of expression."
The report stated, "Data collected by Chinese corporations operating overseas has allowed Beijing to fine-tune global censorship by targeting specific individuals and organizations."
A month prior to the release of the report, social media giant Meta announced that it had removed over 7,000 fake accounts on Facebook that were linked to Chinese law enforcement and were aimed at promoting pro-China talking points. At the time, Meta referred to it as "the largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world."
The ceo of X, Elon Musk, mocked Haley over the proposal for social media platforms. "Super messed up," he posted. "She can stop pretending to run for president now."