Twitter user 'Ricky Vaughn' arrested for spreading 'election disinformation' through memes

The suspect behind the Twitter troll account "Ricky Vaughn" was busted by federal authorities for spreading "disinformation" through memes during the 2016 presidential election in an alleged "election interference" scheme to limit black voter turnout.

31-year-old Douglass Mackey was arrested Wednesday in West Palm Beach, Florida, on one charge of conspiracy against rights. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

Between September and November 2016, Mackey is accused of conspiring with others to encourage black voters through social media to cast their votes via text message so their ballots wouldn't count, according to Brooklyn federal prosecutors.

On Nov. 1, one week before Election Day that ushered in President Donald Trump's term, the complaint alleges that Mackey tweeted an image of an African American woman in front of an "African Americans for President Hillary" sign. The message included with the photograph read: "Avoid the Line. Vote from Home. Text 'Hillary' to 59925. Vote for Hillary and be a part of history."

More than 4,900 unique telephone numbers, encouraged by Mackey's misinformation campaign, cast their ballots via text, officials cited.

"According to the allegations in the complaint, the defendant exploited a social media platform to infringe one the of most basic and sacred rights guaranteed by the Constitution: the right to vote," said Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's criminal division Nicholas McQuaid via press release.

Seth DuCharme, the acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said that there is "no place in public discourse for lies and misinformation to defraud citizens of their right to vote."

"With Mackey’s arrest, we serve notice that those who would subvert the democratic process in this manner cannot rely on the cloak of Internet anonymity to evade responsibility for their crimes," DuCharme added. "They will be investigated, caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

William Sweeney, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York Field office claimed Mackey's actions "amounted to nothing short of vote theft."

"It is illegal behavior and contributes to the erosion of the public’s trust in our electoral processes," Sweeney stated, noting that "[p]rotecting every American citizen’s right to cast a legitimate vote is a key to the success of our republic."

Mackey's pro-Trump account under the name Vaughn—Charlie Sheen's character in sports comedy film Major League—had attracted approximately 58,000 followers by early 2016. That same year, the MIT Media Lab ranked the account in February as the 107th most important social media influencer of the then-upcoming presidential election, ahead of NBC News and late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert.

After the account was debunked in 2018, the Huffington Post called Mackey an "open 'alt-right' white nationalist" who used his alter ego to peddle racist and anti-Semitic views.

Mackey appeared Wednesday afternoon for his initial appearance before US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart at the West Palm Beach federal courthouse.

"This Ricky Vaughn case is insane. The federal government is criminally prosecuting a guy for posting memes five years ago," commented the Daily Wire's Matt Walsh, calling the "[a]lmost unbelievable" situation "real life dystopian stuff."

Walsh then fired back at prosecution for alleging that Mackey "deprived people of their right to vote by posting memes."

"Absurd on its face," Walsh concluded. "If you were tricked out of voting because you saw a meme, that's on you. Nobody took your rights away."

One America News Network's Jack Posobiec pointed out to the Justice Department that Twitter-verified comedian Kristina Wong's political sketch from 2016 remains online and posted to Twitter.

Wong told Trump supporters to also skip the poll lines and text in their votes. "Text votes are legit. Or vote tomorrow on Super Wednesday!" she tweeted on Nov. 8, 2016.