OOPS: Haley’s Getting LIT UP After Her Internet Policy Unmasked Her Inner Authoritarian

Nikki Haley has been enjoying a surge in popularity. She’s making a run at being the leading GOP candidate NOT named Trump… and she was doing well. Until this.

This might be one of those landmines that, once stepped on, is difficult to recover from.

She has ‘thoughts’ about how social media is sued on the internet. Like so many of Biden’s buddies and associates in the misinformation management business, Haley has chosen to view this question principally through the lens of security rather than liberty.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

Yes

No

Submit Vote

That fact was NOT lost on Conservative Twitter/X.

As this meme would indicate, she really stepped in it:

pic.twitter.com/ndbMzVWnE0

— Judianna (@Judianna) November 15, 2023

Ok, so what did she say, exactly?

NEW – Nikki Haley: "Every person on social media should be verified by their name" because of "national security." pic.twitter.com/bPTkYGKNin

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 14, 2023

Oh, it’s for national security. Like the Patriot Act was. That makes it so much better.

Some of you are thinking, maybe it was a one-off, a mistake that she’ll walk back? Nope. She said it on the Ruthless Podcast, too.

Yours truly got in on the fun:

So…

The Federalist Papers should have been outlawed because they were subversive to the regime.

Got it.

Which party is she running for again?

— Wes Walker (@Republicanuck) November 15, 2023

The memes were top-tier.

From the ones following established formats like this one:

To others that hit with all the subtlety of a punch in the stomach:

Remember the misinformation Czar?

nikki haley campaign songhttps://t.co/pnNGcnrkE2

— Dan Aronstein (@DanAronstein) November 15, 2023

To high-quality, nuanced ones that manage to invoke a call-back to her awkward line about heels being ‘ammunition’.

“But… but… how will you enforce this social media law?!”

Chairman Haley: pic.twitter.com/6R6aZb31m5

— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) November 15, 2023

Others pointed out some flaws in the political messaging part itself:

Or a salient detail that others missed.

From the blowback she’s getting — even from people who like her — this is gonna hurt her.

Will she be able to recover from it? We’ll know soon enough.