Twitter avatar used by “Ricky Vaughn”
A pro-Trump meme maker and Twitter troll was indicted Wednesday
by the feds for using the social media platform to ‘spread
election disinformation’ to Hillary Clinton voters in 2016.
“Ricky Vaughn” AKA, Douglass Mackey, used Twitter to post
memes and troll Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential
election cycle.
31-year-old Mackey was arrested in West Palm Beach on one charge
of conspiracy against rights and faces up to 10 years in
prison.
According to the unsealed
indictment, Mackey conspired with others on Twitter to
encourage black people to cast their votes via text message.
The Eastern District of New York said in its indictment that one
week before the 2016 election, Mackey tweeted an image of a black
woman in front of an “African Americans for President Hillary”
sign.
Emblazoned on the picture was the message: “Avoid the Line.
Vote from Home. Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925. Vote for Hillary and
be a part of history”
According to the complaint, more than 4,900 people ‘cast their
vote via text message.’
Buzzfeed News said they sent a text message to the number and
Hillary Clinton’s campaign actually responded and redirected
people to the proper channels.
So how many people just sent a text message out of curiosity and
didn’t actually fall for the meme?
The most chilling part of the indictment is the criminalization
of normal political speech and banter:
“Starting in at least 2015, MACKEY participated in numerous
Group DMs. These groups, which at times included dozens of
individuals, and at times had overlapping membership, served as
forums for the participants to share, among other things, their
views concerning how best to influence the Election. Among other
things, MACKEY and the members of these groups used the Group DMs
to create, refine and share memes and hashtags that members of the
groups would subsequently post and distribute.”
An example of the criminal behavior describes Mackey and his
friends on Twitter joking around in private groups about trolling
“shitlibs” with memes:
“For example, on or about December 22, 2015, MACKEY and his
associates exchanged messaged in the Fed Free Hatechat relating to
memes suggesting that certain voters were hiding their desire to
vote for a Presidential candidate from on of the two main political
parties (“Candidate 2”). MACKEY stated, using MACKEY Account 1,
“It’s actually a great meme to spread, make all these shitlibs
think they’re (sic) friends are secretly voting for
(Candidate2)”. A participant in the group conversations, a
Twitter user, described it as “perfect psyops” to which MACKEY
later replied, “We’ve hit upon meme magic motherlode.” The
next day, MACKEY used MACKEY Account 1 to retweet a tweet that
contained one of the discussed memes with the following text: “If
you need support, I am here for you #(Candidate 2)Closet.”
The feds are criminalizing political speech in order to lock up
Trump supporters.
Even worse, NOBODY who unleashed the might of the US government
to illegally spy on Trump’s 2016 campaign has gone to jail.
The post
Pro-Trump Meme Maker “Ricky Vaughn” Indicted For Using Twitter
to ‘Spread Election Disinformation’ to Hillary Clinton Voters
– Faces 10 Years in Prison appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
