Nikki Haley's anti-free speech social media plan should scare you

Nikki Haley has just taken a massive misstep with voters.

This week, the Republican presidential candidate and former South Carolina governor called for name verification on all social media profiles, accusing anonymous accounts and bots of spreading misinformation and being a “national security threat.”

Haley claimed that upon entering office, the first thing she would do would be to force social media companies to “show America their algorithms.”

“Let us see why they’re pushing what they’re pushing,” she told Fox in an interview on Tuesday.

Haley added that “every person on social media should be verified by their name.”

She then doubled down on the “Ruthless” podcast, and Pat Gray thinks this was a huge mistake.

“Welcome comrade, to the new internet,” Gray jokes.

Keith Malinak notes that by Haley’s standards, “she would make sure that we knew who was on the ship at the Boston Harbor, the Boston Tea Party with the Sons of Liberty, she would out Ben Franklin writing as Silence DoGood, she would out the authors of the Federalist Papers.”

“I’m sorry,” Malinak continues, “that is fundamental to America, is to be able to speak your mind freely and if you want to hide behind some other persona, go for it.”

Gray believes Haley’s idea is “dangerous.”

The Supreme Court agrees.

In 1995, the court ruled in favor of anonymity which Malinak quotes, “Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights and of the First Amendment in particular to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation and their ideas from suppression at the hand of an intolerant society.”

“That was 1995,” Malinak says. “You got people that are trying to provide for their families and maybe they can’t put their real name out there to speak their mind.”

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