Douglass Mackey Racist guy arrested for spreading misinformation and disenfranchise voters during the 2016 election
The notorious Twitter troll and alt-right figure Douglass Mackey, known better as his alter ego, Ricky Vaughn, was arrested Wednesday on federal charges of election interference stemming from allegations of a voter disinformation campaign during the 2016 election.
Mackey is charged with conspiring with others “to disseminate misinformation designed to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote,” according to the newly unsealed criminal complaint.
The charges are potentially a tectonic shift in how the federal government tries to enforce laws against election interference. False claims about elections on the internet and social media have been a major problem, with large platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, trying to limit their spread.
But there are few examples of social media posts’ having been used as the basis for such criminal charges.
“I haven’t seen anything like this about information on social media accounts before,” said Chip Stewart, a professor of journalism at Texas Christian University who specializes in media law and communication technology.
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