Republican 2024 presidential candidate and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley argued against the existence of anonymous social media accounts on Tuesday, saying the issue amounts to a “national security threat.”
“Social media companies, they have to show America their algorithms. Let us see why they’re pushing what they’re pushing,” Haley told Fox News. “The second thing is every person on social media should be verified by their name. That’s, 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,” she continued. “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, and they know their pastor and their family members is going to see it. It’s going to help our kids and it’s going to help our country.”
She doubled down on her call during a separate interview on the conservative Ruthless Podcast, saying that social media companies need to “verify every single person on their outlet … I want everybody’s name.”
Her remarks were delivered in front of a prominent anonymous X user—@ComfortablySmug—and said the ban should extend to him as well.
“If ‘Smug’ is on your driver’s license … and look you can put ‘Smug’ in parentheses, but I want everybody’s name” she countered.
Haley’s proposal was widely criticized by other conservatives online, who believe the idea is anti-free speech.
“[Haley] is *openly* pushing for the government to use private tech companies to censor speech,” primary opponent Vivek Ramaswamy said. “This is a flagrant violation of the Constitution and straight out of the Democrats’ playbook. Any politician who thinks it’s OK for the government to use the private sector as its censorship bureau shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the White House.”
Christina Pushaw, the Rapid Response Director for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), wrote on X Wednesday: “I am no lawyer but isn’t this blatantly unconstitutional? Free speech includes anonymous speech.”
“I was wondering where [Haley] got the idea that the federal government should ban anonymous speech on social media. Perhaps from the WEF conference in China that she attended and listened to the CCP premier keynote? Or perhaps her former boss.” Pushaw continued, including a screenshot of a 2013 tweet from former President Donald Trump.
The Trump tweet reads: “It should be mandatory that all haters and losers use their real name or identification when tweeting – they will no longer be so brave!”
Turning Point USA cofounder Charlie Kirk weighed in as well, writing: “Nice try, Nikki. Anonymous speech is a core part of free speech — which the founders would know, since many of them (including Alexander Hamilton and James Madison) wrote anonymously.”
X owner Elon Musk has previously said he aims to “authenticate all real humans,” though the proposed goal stems from the desire to counter spam and bots as a company—not from a government-imposed mandate.
X’s current blue verification mark for its premium users requires a confirmed phone number but allows for anonymous usage, like Comfortably Smug.
Haley has recently risen in Republican primary polls and currently notches 9% of support nationwide, according to RealClearPolitics. That puts her roughly five points behind DeSantis and four points ahead of Ramaswamy, though all four are still far behind Trump’s numbers.
