Pro-Trump Twitter influencer found guilty of conspiracy against rights over 2016 memes

A Twitter influencer who supported President Donald Trump has been found guilty of election interference for sharing memes that deprived people of their right to vote. Douglass Mackey, who went by the online moniker Ricky Vaughn, was convicted of conspiracy against rights in a Brooklyn court for the creation and circulation of memes that were intended to strip people of their “constitutional right to vote.” The memes that Mackey created mimicked official campaign ads for Hilary Clinton and instructed potential voters to vote via text message, a method that is not allowed during US elections.

Mackey now faces up to 10 years in prison. “Today’s verdict proves that the defendant’s fraudulent actions crossed a line into criminality and flatly rejects his cynical attempt to use the constitutional right of free speech as a shield for his scheme to subvert the ballot box and suppress the vote,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said.

Prosecutors revealed that around 4,900 unique numbers texted their preferred candidate’s name to the listed 59925 number around Election Day in 2016. However, it is unknown if those who texted the number proceeded to not vote in person.

Aside from these memes, court documents showed other memes created by Mackey and his co-conspirators. One viral campaign used fake campaign ads and photoshopped tweets from Clinton to convince people that Clinton planned to draft women and wage war with Russia or Syria. They even created a hashtag that read “draftourdaughters.”

Mackey’s case has attracted the attention of Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who has expressed concern over Mackey’s prosecution, claiming that it impedes his First Amendment right to free speech. Meanwhile, some conservatives have compared Mackey’s sentence to comedian Kristina Wong’s satirical short video on Election Day, where she encouraged Trump supporters to cast their votes a day after the elections. Unlike Mackey, Wong didn’t face any criminal charges for her video.