that seems reasonably open-and-shut "very naughty, no, bad, don't do that!"
"The complaint alleges that 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 Election, ranking his account above outlets and individuals such as NBC News (#114), Stephen Colbert (#119) and Newt Gingrich (#141)."
The person in question posted large amounts of images like this
- fraudulently said it was paid for by the campaign to elect the candidate
- specifically targeted people of colour that supported a non-conservative candidate
- told those people that they could text a number to vote instead of vote (which is not valid), and to avoid voting in person afterward
- therefore resulting in several thousand votes probably not being counted since they never voted, based on carrier logs
That's no different than setting up a "voting booth" in a black neighborhood so they don't go to a real voting booth. 100% deserve jail time for that.
Like, yeah, you don't make "fake pretend money" that looks like the real thing and get away with it.
Well, we’ve always been in the age of illegal memes in the sense relevant to the item in question, to wit, “but, I use a meme” has never been a defense to a crime.
Trolling aside, what does this outburst mean in relation to the image?
Decontextualize the subject to the point where it can be equated to something the left has done/previously supported.
Here, the left voted by mail in larger numbers than the right. That's how they interfered with the election, supposedly. Just like the sign is recommending voting from home.
See also: BLM riots are the same as an insurrection, Obama started family separation at the border.
Unfortunately, I'm not fluent in Clickbaitian. Will someone who is please translate?
> Douglass Mackey, aka Ricky Vaughn, 31, of West Palm Beach, was charged by criminal complaint in the Eastern District of New York. He was taken into custody this morning
So he was taken into custody this morning. (today)
> As alleged in the complaint, between September 2016 and November 2016, in the lead up to the Nov. 8, 2016, U.S. Presidential Election, Mackey conspired with others to . . .
They're only now dealing with something that happened over four years ago?
Am I missing something?
“The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine”.
> Am I missing something?
Yes, the history of the crime and related events related in the complaint linked fromm the press release. Compressing a bit:
The various Twitter accounts used in 2016 were under false names, a Congressional Candidate for whom Mackey worked outed Mackey as connected to the “Ricky Vaughn” the accounts in late 2018, the FBI interviewed that candidate and a documentary filmmaker who has interviewed “Ricky Vaughn” in 2018 and confirmed the identity in late 2020. There's lots of stuff not directly germane to the charges against Mackey about the narrative left out, but there was presumably more investigation to attempt to identify others involved because several co-conspirators are listed only by Twitter IDs.
This case seems to be based on a handful of public tweets and some phone records that can be trivially subpoenaed. It's clearly been ready for years, and was likely suppressed internally.
https://twitter.com/mskristinawong/status/795999059987173377
When is the FBI coming for her?
And where are the "it's a private company" censorship apologists now? The slope is slippery after all.
The only "chilling effect" is people facing ten years in prison for memes.
The key FBI interviews, per the Complaint, were conducted in fall of 2020. So, no.
Florida Man strikes again!
Don't get me wrong - guys like this should be shutdown. By who is altogether another debate.
The govt rarely loses when they bring cases like this - so they probably think they have a pretty airtight case. Any background or clarification would be helpful - as both the press release and complaint are scant on details.
EDIT: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/241 << this says "2 or more persons" to be a conspiracy.
And the complaint includes 4 co-conspirators identified by Twitter IDs. Conspiracy doesn't require the other co-conspirators to be charged simultaneously, or at all, it only requires that they exist.
Title 18, United States Code, Section 241
A nuanced and evenhanded discussion just isn't conducive to our neutered attention spans or the desire for upvotes and clap-back repartee.