Nikki Haley Steps In It
Nikki Haley would make a much better president than Joe Biden.
Then again, so would Asa Hutchinson, so I’m not declaring myself a member of Team Haley.
I’m on Team Anyone Who Beats Joe.
Haley’s surging in the primary polls, while continuing to lag behind GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. But she really stepped on a rake Tuesday when she told Fox News’ Harris Faulkner that the first thing she’d do as president is strip away anonymity from social media.
“When I get into office, the first thing we have to do, social media companies have to show America their algorithms, let us see why they’re pushing what they’re pushing,” Haley added. “The second thing, every person on social media should be verified by their name. First of all, that’s a national security threat. When you do that, 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 going to get some civility when people know their name is next to what they say.”
In another interview later that day she doubled down: “They need to verify every single person on their outlet, and I want it by name.”
Haley clearly doesn’t spend much time on social media or studying American history. If she did she’d understand that anonymity protects commentators who are not free to voice their opinions without jeopardizing their jobs or becoming a target of angry mobs. Many anonymous commentators are whistleblowers, members of the military, goverment workers, even victims of domestic abuse. Without the cloak of anonymity they couldn’t participate in social media. Being able to voice opinions without putting oneself in peril is a core component of free speech.
Haley also seems unaware that it was anonymous pamphleteers who helped stir up the American Revolution and that even the Federalist Papers - written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison - were initially published anonymously, under the pen name "Publius."
By Wednesday, the blowback was so strong that Haley tried to modify her proposal:
“I don’t mind anonymous American people having free speech,” Haley told CNBC magnanimously. “What I don’t like is anonymous Russians and Chinese and Iranians having free speech.”
Well that’s ludicrous, Nikki. How exactly would you unmask Russian, Chinese and Iranian bots and troublemakers without first removing anonymity from everyone?
Look, I’m on social media a lot and I always comment under my real name. Then again, for the past 23 years I’ve been an opinion writer. Having opinions and voicing them is what I do.
Many don’t have that freedom.
For instance, during the pandemic, anonymity allowed members of the medical community who risked ostracism if they criticized misinformation about covid and vaccines coming from government health officials to relate what they were seeing in clinical settings that disputed the official narrative. That information was valuable, allowing many of us to make informed decisions that ran counter to government directives.
While it’s true that social media’s nastiest trolls are emboldened when they hide behind pseudonyms, that lack of civility is a small price to pay to keep the free marketplace of ideas alive in America.
We are still learning about the extent of the Biden administration efforts to stifle what it labels “misinformation.” The current administration’s lack of respect for dissenting views is chilling.
The next American president needs to halt all efforts by government agencies to censor speech. Instead, he - or she - must embrace the untidy, sometimes uncivil, world of free expression.
