"among the most prolific far-right Twitter users" my ass…never heard of him. Do you think this is just to placate [them] awhile longer, or maybe it is an op'?
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The Justice Department is Prosecuting an American for Election Interference—in 2016
By Quinta Jurecic Saturday, January 30, 2021, 9:01 AM
A screenshot of the @Ricky_Vaughn99 account from summer 2016, captured on the Wayback Machine.
“Ricky Vaughn” was among the most prolific far-right Twitter users working to spread disinformation during the 2016 election cycle. He posted racist and anti-Semitic photos and memes and routinely retweeted the @TEN_GOP account, which purported to belong to the Tennessee Republican party but, Special Counsel Robert Mueller revealed two years later, was actually run from St. Petersburg by the Internet Research Agency troll farm. In the MIT Media Lab’s ranking of top political influencers in 2016, Vaughn came in at #107—above NBC and CBS.
Vaughn has now been arrested—and, as it turns out, his name isn't Ricky Vaughn after all.
On Jan. 27, the Justice Department announced the charges against Vaughn, whose real name is Douglass Mackey. The criminal complaint alleges that some of Mackey’s 2016 tweets crossed the line into illegal voter suppression, what the Justice Department describes as “misinformation designed to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote.” The case is interesting for a number of reasons, among them the decision to use a civil rights statute to hold Mackey responsible for spreading disinformation.
Particularly puzzling, though, is why Mackey is being held responsible now. Election disinformation didn’t end in 2016, as anyone who has been paying attention to President Trump’s comments about the 2020 election knows. But the conduct for which Mackey is charged all took place between September and November 2016. So why is the Justice Department only prosecuting him four years later?
(moar)
https://www.lawfareblog.com/justice-department-prosecuting-american-election-interference-2016
Sorry, forgot the pic' the 1st time:
"among the most prolific far-right Twitter users" my ass…never heard of him. Do you think this is just to placate [them] awhile longer, or maybe it is an op'?
---–
The Justice Department is Prosecuting an American for Election Interference—in 2016
By Quinta Jurecic Saturday, January 30, 2021, 9:01 AM
A screenshot of the @Ricky_Vaughn99 account from summer 2016, captured on the Wayback Machine.
“Ricky Vaughn” was among the most prolific far-right Twitter users working to spread disinformation during the 2016 election cycle. He posted racist and anti-Semitic photos and memes and routinely retweeted the @TEN_GOP account, which purported to belong to the Tennessee Republican party but, Special Counsel Robert Mueller revealed two years later, was actually run from St. Petersburg by the Internet Research Agency troll farm. In the MIT Media Lab’s ranking of top political influencers in 2016, Vaughn came in at #107—above NBC and CBS.
Vaughn has now been arrested—and, as it turns out, his name isn't Ricky Vaughn after all.
On Jan. 27, the Justice Department announced the charges against Vaughn, whose real name is Douglass Mackey. The criminal complaint alleges that some of Mackey’s 2016 tweets crossed the line into illegal voter suppression, what the Justice Department describes as “misinformation designed to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote.” The case is interesting for a number of reasons, among them the decision to use a civil rights statute to hold Mackey responsible for spreading disinformation.
Particularly puzzling, though, is why Mackey is being held responsible now. Election disinformation didn’t end in 2016, as anyone who has been paying attention to President Trump’s comments about the 2020 election knows. But the conduct for which Mackey is charged all took place between September and November 2016. So why is the Justice Department only prosecuting him four years later?
(moar)
https://www.lawfareblog.com/justice-department-prosecuting-american-election-interference-2016