© @RapinBill via Twitter
The former profile photo of Douglass Mackey, who operated under the Twitter handle @TheRickyVaughn. Mackey was arrested on Wednesday and charged with using his social media accounts to attempt to influence the 2016 election. The image used for his account is actually actor Charlie Sheen playing his role as pitcher Ricky Vaughn in the 1989 movie "Major League."
In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, a Delray Beach man is accused of using his popular social-media accounts to intimidate and mislead voters in an effort to help former President Donald Trump win, according to a federal complaint.
Douglass Mackey, 31, conspired with others to use Twitter and Facebook accounts operating under the alias "Ricky Vaughn" to spread disinformation
in the form of memes, messages and hashtags that he developed for the goal of influencing voters, according to the complaint. One of the images he shared included a claim that people could vote for Hillary Clinton in a text message.
Mackey is accused of violating a U.S. statute that makes it illegal for people to threaten or intimidate others from exercising any right secured to them by the Constitution, such as the right to vote.
Gerald Greenberg, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida, said speech that threatens or seeks to halt those rights is not protected by the First Amendment.
"You're allowed to lie to convince someone not to vote for Hillary Clinton," he said. "But you're not allowed to lie to block someone from voting for Hillary Clinton."
Mackey's charges stem from New York, where he previously lived before moving to Delray Beach in 2018, according to public records. Mackey was arrested in his home on Wednesday and later released on $50,000 bond.
His Twitter handle and alias is a reference to the character Ricky Vaughn played by Charlie Sheen in the 1989 film "Major League." One of Mackey's popular Twitter profile pictures featured a modified image of Sheen wearing a Make America Great Again hat.
Comment: Country after country is seeing major rioting because tyrannical measures and lockdowns caused a significant economic decline. Lockdowns can't stop any virus, but they surely can stop any economy.
The poor countries like Lebanon are the first ones who felt the terrible economic consequences of the lockdowns. The illogical and inhuman measures have brought many people on the verge of existence, and we still can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.