Douglass Mackey, known better by his alter ego, Ricky Vaughn, a white nationalist Twitter troll, was arrested Wednesday on federal charges relating to conducting a widespread disinformation campaign to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, NBC News reports.
Arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida, Mackey is charged with efforts to repeatedly disseminate information designed to deprive voters of their Constitutional rights to vote.
Mackey oversaw an effort to trick people into thinking their ballots could be cast via text message, falsely claiming that various influential people endorsed Donald Trump, and disseminating false information about changes to Election Day or voting locations. Mackey used text messages and social media platforms to send this information to millions of people.
Mackey created memes that attempted to get people to falsely vote via text, including one that said “Avoid the lines, vote via text. Send [candidate’s name] to [#####] to vote.”
Mackey also started rumors about Hillary Clinton’s health and policies, including one that Clinton would implement a draft that would include women.
“There is no place in public discourse for lies and misinformation to defraud citizens of their right to vote,” acting United States Attorney Seth DuCharme said in a press release announcing the charges. “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. They will be investigated, caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”