Before panning Haley’s social media proposal, DeSantis pushed to curb anonymous sources

When Nikki Haley proposed a requirement this week that social media companies ban users from posting on their platforms anonymously out of concern for national security, Ron DeSantis and his allies had a field day.

His campaign staffers took to Twitter to accuse Haley of wanting to clamp down on constitutionally protected speech. DeSantis himself tweeted that anonymous voices are key to free speech rights in the United States, hearkening back to Founding Fathers like Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison, who collectively authored the Federalist Papers under the pseudonym “Publius.”

“Haley’s proposal to ban anonymous speech online — similar to what China recently did — is dangerous and unconstitutional,” DeSantis wrote. “It will be dead on arrival in my administration.”

DeSantis hasn’t always been such an ardent defender of anonymous speech. During his tenure as Florida governor, he has railed repeatedly against the use of unidentified sources in news stories, going as far as to host a live-streamed roundtable discussion earlier this year to push for legal changes that would have clamped down on journalists’ use of such voices and make it easier to sue reporters for defamation.

A measure introduced in the state legislature earlier this year would have removed many of the legal protections journalists have against defamation claims, including their ability to refuse in most cases to identify anonymous sources.

The bill also would have made using anonymous sources more difficult by creating the legal assumption that “a statement by an anonymous source is presumptively false for purposes of a defamation action.”

That bill, HB 991, and its companion measure in the state Senate, SB 1220, ultimately died in committee. DeSantis later said that he has no issue with reporters citing anonymous sources in cases of “real serious malfeasance in government,” when using someone’s name could put their livelihood at risk, but said that journalists often use “anonymous sources to smear” individuals.

“Nobody trusts these people anymore,” DeSantis said during a stop in Jupiter in May. “Everybody knows when they see this stuff, they know someone’s trying to feed them some type of narrative. They’re trying to sell you a bill of goods.”

Still, the governor’s critics say that the effort leaves little room for DeSantis to criticize Haley’s proposal.

“He has been the most anti-free speech governor in the history of Florida and among the most anti-free speech governors the United States has ever seen,” said Fernand Amandi, a Miami-based Democratic operative and DeSantis critic. “To me, what’s really interesting is they’re willing to risk the hypocrisy badge because they’re so desperate and scared about Haley.”

DeSantis, long considered the most viable alternative to former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican primary, is facing an increasingly serious challenge from Haley, a former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador. The two are competing for the support of a Republican electorate deeply anxious about the influence of foreign adversaries, like China and Iran, on American life.

Haley sought to partially walk back her proposal on anonymous social media accounts during an appearance on CNBC on Wednesday, saying that she doesn’t “mind anonymous American people having free speech,” but opposes “anonymous Russians and Chinese and Iranians having free speech.”

Haley’s campaign tore into DeSantis for his criticism of her remarks, accusing him and his campaign of “hypocrisy” given his past efforts to crack down on the use of anonymous sources.

“He wants China and Iran to be able to do anything anonymously on social media, but doesn’t want Americans to be able to speak to the press anonymously,” Haley’s campaign said in a statement to the Miami Herald. “The more DeSantis loses, the more he lies.”

Bryan Griffin, the press secretary for DeSantis’ presidential campaign, said in an email to the Herald that the governor’s past comments were clearly different from Haley’s remarks. He also said that DeSantis’ roundtable this year “included discussing how the media fabricates anonymous sources to defame people,” though he didn’t provide any examples or evidence of fabricated sourcing.

“Defamation is not a constitutionally protected right, and the media certainly needs more accountability when they utilize unfair advantage and disproportionate resources to attack and cancel people they disagree with,” Griffin said. “This is plainly different from Nikki Haley’s proposal to restrict the First Amendment right of everyday citizens to speak anonymously.”

Thomas Kennedy, an activist and Democratic National Committee member who was banned last year from attending the governor’s press conferences after disrupting several events, said that he agreed with DeSantis that Haley’s initial comments went too far. But he said that the governor’s track record on free speech – including his approach to anonymous sourcing in journalism – effectively strips him of the ability to criticize her.

“I agree with the criticism of it, but in terms of DeSantis’ take on it, he’s a hypocrite,” Kennedy said. “His whole approach has been to stifle ideas and people he doesn’t like.”

“It’s only free speech when it’s ideas that he likes,” Kennedy added.