Nikki Haley says she would force people to use their real names on social media if elected as president
Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley has pledged to force social media users to publicly show their real names if she is elected.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, the former South Carolina governor claimed that online anonymity is a “national security threat” and that her policy would “get rid of” foreign bot armies.
The proposal met immediate pushback from Republican rivals such as Vivek Ramaswamy, who called it “disgusting”, and Ron DeSantis, whose top PR aide Christina Pushaw questioned whether it would violate the US constitution.
“Every person on social media should be verified by their name,” said Ms Haley, who is seeking the GOP nomination for next year’s presidential election.
“First of all, it’s a national security threat. When you do that, all of a sudden people have to stand by what they say. And it gets rid of the Russian bots, the Iranian bots, and the Chinese bots.
“Then you’re going to get some civility – when people know their name is next to what they say, and they know their pastor and their family members are gonna see it.
“It’s gonna help our kids, and it’s gonna help our country.”
Ms Haley, who was previously the US’s ambassador to the United Nations, said that the policy would be among her first acts as president, although she did not explain how she would go about implementing it with the powers available to her.
Debate over the value of online anonymity stretches back to the earliest days of the internet. Figures across the political spectrum have repeatedly suggested that forcing social media users to put their real names next to their words would make the web safer and more civil.
But academic research does not support that notion, with one 2016 meta-analysis finding that anonymity was actually associated with greater conformity to group rules and norms.
A similar policy in South Korea between 2008 and 2012 does not appear to have reduced online rudeness or promotion of conspiracy theories over the long term, although it did precede a massive cyberattack in which 35 million users’ personal details were stolen.
Verifying users’ identities is also a difficult task, often requiring companies to collect scans of ID documents such as passports and thereby increasing the risk of cybercrime.
Ms Haley is currently in third place for the Republican nomination in 2024, according to an average of polls by FiveThirtyEight, trailing behind Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis with around 9 per cent of the vote.
