Welcome to The United States of America in 2023, where we see the first ever criminal conviction of a U.S. citizen for creating a meme. A man created a picture determined to be illegal by a Dept of Justice focused on the arrest and incarceration of people working against the interests of a weaponized government.
We will see what happens on appeal. After the jury remained deadlocked for three days, and after thrice telling the judge they were deadlocked, Judge Ann Donnelly threatened not to release them from duty unless and until they came to a decision on guilt. The jury subsequently found Douglass Mackey, a 33-year-old who went by the name Ricky Vaughn on Twitter and a resident of Florida (insert DeSantis silence here), guilty of creating a meme against the interests of the U.S. government.
The DOJ Celebrates – Douglass Mackey, also known as “Ricky Vaughn,” was convicted today by a federal jury in Brooklyn of the charge of Conspiracy Against Rights stemming from his scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote. The verdict followed a one-week trial before United States District Judge Ann M. Donnelly. When sentenced, Mackey faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the verdict.
“Mackey has been found guilty by a jury of his peers of attempting to deprive individuals from exercising their sacred right to vote for the candidate of their choice in the 2016 Presidential Election,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “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.”
In 2016, Mackey established an audience on Twitter with approximately 58,000 followers. A February 2016 analysis by the MIT Media Lab ranked Mackey as the 107th most important influencer of the then-upcoming Presidential Election.
As proven at trial, between September 2016 and November 2016, Mackey conspired with other influential Twitter users and with members of private online groups to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages that encouraged supporters of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to “vote” via text message or social media which, in reality, was legally invalid. (read more)
This is a dark day for our nation. However, let this serve as a warning for what lies ahead as the United States Senate attempts to create criminal laws that will take control over online content. This conviction for the expression of speech is the first of many if the Restrict Act is passed as written.
