Twitter influencer sentenced for trying to trick Clinton supporters into voting by text
abcnews.go.com
A social media influencer has been sentenced to seven months for falsely telling Hillary Clinton supporters they could cast their 2016 vote for Clinton via text message.

Douglass Mackey, the social media influencer known as "Ricky Vaughn," was sentenced Wednesday to seven months in prison for falsely assuring supporters of Hillary Clinton they could cast their vote in the 2016 presidential election through text messages or social media posts.

Mackey was prosecuted under the Ku Klux Klan Act that was enacted during the Reconstruction era in response to efforts by the KKK to prevent recently emancepated Blacks from voting.

Mackey was 26 years old in 2015 when he began posting on Twitter under the pseudonym "Ricky Vaughn," amassing 51,000 followers on Twitter and ranking among the "most influential voices" posting about the 2016 presidential election, according to a list compiled by M.I.T.

Federal prosecutors in New York said Mackey was intent on originating hashtags designed to "cause as much chaos as possible" by creating "controversy … for the sole purpose of disparaging Hillary Clinton."

At 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 1, 2016, Mackey published the first tweet that falsely announced that people could register their vote by texting on their phones, according to trial testimony. Additional tweets followed.

  • ZeroCool@feddit.chEnglish
    2201·
    1 year ago

    That seems like a wholly inadequate sentence when you contrast it with the case of the woman in Texas who got 5 years for casting a provisional ballot in 2016 when she didn't know she wasn't eligible to vote. Wikipedia article outlining the details of her case and appeals..

    Five years for not knowing you couldn't vote and casting a provisional ballot vs seven months for launching a nationwide internet campaign to disenfranchise people through deception? What a sad state of affairs.

    • paprika@infosec.pub
      83·
      1 year ago

      She literally followed the rules. The entire purpose of a provisional ballot is that it's a placeholder for people of unknown status, and it is later approved or rejected based on investigation. That was straight up a racist prosecution meant to scare black folks away from voting.

      • Drusas@kbin.social
        22·
        1 year ago

        I'm not OP, but I'm pretty sure that's the case in question. It was such a miscarriage of justice. Absolutely horrifying and shameful that it didn't get more coverage and outrage than it did.

        • Nudding@lemmy.world
          61·
          1 year ago

          It's just business as usual for America, most non violent prisoners of any country, ever.

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Meanwhile, Tina Peters resisted arrest and tried to meddle with an election and she still has not been given the years and years she deserves to rot in prison.

    • thefartographer@lemm.ee
      261·
      1 year ago

      Also vs walking around freely and continuing to campaign after trying to literally destroy the literal country via literal insurrection and literally selling literal government secrets and literally getting literal intelligence agents killed and then literally doxxing the literal judge who literally just approved a literal gag order but then getting to sit in court and act like you did nothing wrong and LITERALLY NEARLY HALF OF THIS LITERALLY BROKEN COUNTRY FILLED WITH LITERAL NAZIS CONTINUE TO SUPPORT YOU AND LITERALLY CALL THEMSELVES BOTH "LITERAL NAZIS" AND THE HEROES OF THIS STORY WHILE ALSO LITERALLY EQUATING THE LITERAL ANTI-FASCISTS TO METAPHORICAL NAZIS.

      God damn I fucking hate this narrative…