EXCLUSIVE: Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rubbed salt on the wound Wednesday by trolling his opponent, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, over her closely scrutinized vow to require all social media customers be verified.
DeSantis’ marketing campaign introduced new merchandise mocking Haley’s feedback, together with a t-shirt with the phrase, “Always Watching,” and a quote from Haley saying that “every person on social media should be verified by their name.”
Another merchandise is a dystopian-themed “Official Internet Identification Card” usual after one thing that could be required by a science-fiction authoritarian regime.
CRITICS RIP NIKKI HALEY OVER VOW TO REQUIRE ALL SOCIA MEDIA USERS BE VERIFIED: ‘BLATANTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL’
Ron DeSantis marketing campaign merch mocking Nikki Haley over her vow to require all social media customers be verified. (Ron DeSantis for President)
Haley’s feedback got here throughout a Tuesday look on Fox News when she mentioned the primary issues she would do if elected president can be to power social media firms to point out their algorithms, along with the verification requirement.
“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. 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 are going to see it,” she mentioned.
DeSantis was fast to tear Haley for the proposal, becoming a member of a wave of critics blasting it as “unconstitutional.”
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Ron DeSantis marketing campaign merch mocking Nikki Haley over her vow to require all social media customers be verified. (Ron DeSantis For President)
“You know who were anonymous writers back in the day? Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison when they wrote the Federalist Papers. They were not ‘national security threats,’ nor are the many conservative Americans across the country who exercise their Constitutional right to voice their opinions without fear of being harassed or canceled by the school they go to or the company they work for,” DeSantis wrote.
He went on to name her proposal “dangerous,” and mentioned it will be “dead on arrival” in a DeSantis administration.
Haley walked again these feedback on Wednesday, telling CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that whereas she did not thoughts “anonymous American” free speech, she did not help nameless free speech for actors in Russia, Iran and China.
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Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis through the Republican Presidential Debate on the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on November 8, 2023. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post by way of Getty Images)
“What I know, what anyone in intelligence [knows]… Russia, Iran and China, North Korea too, know that the cheapest form of warfare is to spread misinformation. Look at what happened with Israel. You want to know where all this pro-Hamas information is coming from? It is coming from foreign actors that are sowing chaos and division,” she mentioned.
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“I want freedom of speech for Americans. I don’t want freedom of speech for Russia and Hamas, and that’s what’s happening right now. So the way you fix that is we need our social media companies to verify everybody,” she mentioned.
Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
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