'The View' Co-Host Says ID Should Be Required to Set Up Social Media Accounts
“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin voiced her support this week for social media platforms to require verified identification before an account can be created.
Actor Idris Elba has called for social media platforms to implement ID verification measures after Euro 2020 final soccer players received racist abuse on social media, BuzzFeed News reported.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg introduced the topic and asked Hostin if she thought the measure would prevent people from trolling others online anonymously.
“I really do and I think this is a terrific, terrific idea,” Hostin said.
“I mean, I am subjected, daily, to racist attacks on social media. I’m talking daily. Sometimes in the hundreds, sometimes in the thousands, and it’s painful — it’s hurtful.”
SHOULD SOCIAL MEDIA BE VERIFIED VIA ID? After racist online attacks on Black athletes during the #EuroCup, actor Idris Elba wants social media sites to make users prove their identities so they cannot troll people anonymously — the co-hosts discuss. https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik pic.twitter.com/Biiu1hUZ5S
— The View (@TheView) July 21, 2021
She added that the perpetrators of these kinds of social media attacks are always anonymous, often with profile pictures depicting things or people other than themselves.
“They are, I believe, just Twitter thugs, social media thugs, hiding in their mama’s basements,” Hostin said.
“The things that they say to me, and I’m sure to many others on this panel, they would never say in person because they don’t have the courage to do it. These are cowards.”
She added, “ID certainly should be necessary, a verified ID, before you start a social media account. Because the reason people are trolling like this is because there are little to no consequences because of their anonymity, and I love that Idris Elba put this out there.”
Although Hostin supports ID requirements for social media, she has not spoken in favor of voter ID requirements.
In May, Hostin joined her co-hosts in condemning a Florida election bill signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The bill included a measure requiring a state ID number or the last four digits of a Social Security number for mail-in ballots, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“The Republicans don’t have a good platform. They are now firmly in the minority. They are in complete, absolute chaos,” Hostin said.
FLORIDA GOV. SIGNS RESTRICTIVE VOTING LAW: After Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a controversial election bill on Thursday, the co-hosts react and question if former Pres. Trump’s false claims of election fraud will be the dividing line within the GOP. https://t.co/pT38pKcenR pic.twitter.com/78K0oR6Xdd
— The View (@TheView) May 7, 2021
“So what do you do when you can’t win the game fairly, when you don’t have enough votes? You change the rules, and that’s what they’re doing.”
She added that the Republican Party is “trafficking in conspiracy theories” in order to pass the new election laws.
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