Twitter Influencer Charged Over 2016 US Election Scam
2016 US ELECTION SCAM – A right-wing troll on Twitter was recetly charged on Wednesday over a scam in the US Elections in 2016.
According to a report from GMA News, the troll was charged with spreading disinformation online that prevented thousands of Hillary Clinton supporters from voting in the 2016 Elections.
The troll, identified as Douglass Mackey, aged 31, is accused of posting memes on Twitter, which claimed that Democratic voters could cast ballots by sending a text message to a certain phone number.
Prosecutors in New York claim that messages from about 4,900 phones were sent to the number in an attempt to cast votes for one of the candidates.
The prosecutors did not disclose which candidate it was but it was clearly Hilary Clinton, who lost to Donald Trump.
Mackay got the idea from a message that falsely informed voters in Britain’s Brexit referendum that they could cast their vote via text to remain in the European Union, prosecutors added.
William Sweeney of the FBI’s New York office said that the troll’s alleged actions sums up to nothing short of vote theft.
The troll was arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida on Wednesday morning, vased on the report.
The US government prosecutors based in Brooklyn’s Eastern District of New York have charged the suspect with conspiracy against rights with the latter facing up to ten years in prison if convicted.
Mackey’s Twitter account, which was under the pseudonym Ricky Vaughn, had 58,000 followers, according to probers. The account posts anti-Semitic and white nationalist posts.
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