Send an urgent message to Canadian legislators urging them to stop more online censorship laws
(LifeSiteNews) — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley yesterday called anonymous social media accounts a “national security threat,” pledging that, as president, she would mandate that all social media users are “verified by their name.”
On a Tuesday episode of Fox News’ Voters’ Voices, Haley shared that as president, one of her top priorities for social media would be mandating name identification on social media, in part because it “gets rid of the Russian bots, the Iranian bots, and the Chinese bots,” according to Haley.
The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations also framed public identification as a way to enforce “civility” on the internet, because people will understand that everything they post can be seen by their “pastor” and their “family member[s].”
Christina Pushaw, rapid response director for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign, pointed out on X that both China and former President Donald Trump have also endorsed the forced identification of social media users.
Haley’s desire to ID all social media users was swiftly condemned as dangerous and un-American by prominent conservatives and civil liberties advocates.
Republican presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis underscored the fact that America’s founding fathers wrote the Federalist Papers anonymously as they sought to gain support for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
In a recent interview with radio personality Glenn Beck, DeSantis pointed out that China has “forc[ed] disclosure of names and information” and that forced public identification would “open the door for a social credit system.”
Ron DeSantis speaks to the Constitutionality of Nikki Haley’s social media user identity program on Glenn Beck: pic.twitter.com/gX5ku5HJFD
— NONBidenary (@KellyLMcCarty) November 15, 2023
He suggested that such a move would be especially dangerous in our age of “cancel culture,” in which people can lose their jobs simply for being conservative.
Reclaim The Net has noted that prohibiting anonymity makes it “easier for authoritarian governments to identify, track, and prosecute individuals who oppose them,” an abuse of power that has already seeped into the U.S., as the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s targeting of conservatives, including pro-life activists and traditional Catholics, has shown.
Business magnate Elon Musk, the owner of X, weighed in on Haley’s remarks, commenting on X, “Super messed up. She can stop pretending to run for president now.”
Super messed up. She can stop pretending to run for president now.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2023
General Mike Flynn also slammed Haley’s comments on X, calling them “an affront” to the First Amendment.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)’s Director of Public Advocacy Aaron Terr told The Post Millennial that Haley’s proposed policy actually poses a greater threat to national security than online anonymity, which he called a “core protected expression.”
“Democracy relies on free speech to function and the ability to speak anonymously gives all of us the breathing room to weigh in on sensitive topics. Prohibiting anonymous online speech poses a greater threat to participation in our democracy – and thus, national security – than Nikki Haley and other politicians who would join her call may realize,” said Terr.
Send an urgent message to Canadian legislators urging them to stop more online censorship laws