If you were wondering what a President Nikki Haley would make a priority once she got to the Oval Office, wonder no more! She's going to take on ... social media?
Haley appeared Tuesday on a Fox News forum called Voters' Voices, where voters from both sides of the political spectrum had the opportunity to question her about her policies. One voter, concerned about rising antisemitism on college campuses and disinformation seeping into schools, asked Haley: "Is there a limit to free speech?"
Haley blamed the rise in antisemitic speech on the use of social media by young people. This led her to speak to how she'd handle the situation if she were to become president, laying out her top two priorities on the issue:
Priority #1: Make social media platforms disclose their algorithms.
Priority #2: Outlaw anonymous social media accounts.
What's that now? WWIII is brewing, American cities are a hellscape of crime, and families across the U.S. are being decimated by Bidenomics, but abolishing anonymous social media accounts is at the top of her presidential to-do list? That's absurd. Also, very likely unconstitutional.
WATCH:
TRANSCRIPT:
When I get into office, the first thing we have to do: social media accounts. Social media companies, they have to show America their algorithms. Let us see why they're pushing what they're pushing.
The second thing is: every person on social media should be verified by their name. That's, first of all, that's a security threat. When you do that, all the sudden people have to stand by what they say. And it gets ride 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 said.
There are a few things to unpack here.
First, again, this is the priority on day one? This certainly isn't the priority of voters who struggle to afford basic necessities right now. How about a little bit of relief for them? That would be a good first thing to do.
Secondly, why bring up social media again after being on the receiving end of Vivek Ramaswamy's pointed attack on her daughter's TikTok account at last week's presidential debate? Sure, she retorted with her "scum" comment, but many thought it was valid to question Haley's stance.
Thirdly, is this plan of hers to outlaw anonymous accounts even constitutional? Many on X/Twitter were quick to call that into question.
And many people choose to use pseudonyms to avoid being doxxed or having their employers harassed. Has Haley somehow missed that conservatives have been on the receiving end of such abuse for years? Sure, get rid of the bots, but forcing people to verify their accounts, which often isn't free, makes for terrible policy.
Lastly, she opened herself up to unflattering comparisons to New York governor Kathy Hochul, who just announced she's launching an effort to monitor social media in order to "combat hate speech." Yes, she now has a "social media monitoring unit" that is ramping up its efforts to identify "incitements to violence." We all know this means monitoring Christians, Jews, and conservatives, and it's really quite chilling.
Things are pretty bad when it's difficult to distinguish a Republican presidential candidate from a power-hungry, freedom-hating Democrat. Nikki Haley needs to delete and retreat on this terrible position.