Douglass Mackey (born 1989 or 1990) is an American social media influencer who posted under the alias Ricky Vaughn.[1][2][3] In March 2023, he was convicted for conspiring to deprive citizens of their right to vote in the 2016 presidential election.[4][5][6]

Early life

Douglass Mackey grew up in Vermont and graduated from Harwood Union High School. He later graduated from Middlebury College in 2011 with a degree in economics.[7] Afterwards, he worked as an economist for consulting firm John Dunham & Associates until he was fired in July 2016.[2][4]

2016 presidential election

Mackey operated several Twitter accounts under the "Ricky Vaughn" persona, inspired by Charlie Sheen's character in 1989 comedy film Major League. One of these accounts, @Ricky_Vaughn99, peaked around 58,000 followers.[5] In February 2016, the MIT Media Lab identified @Ricky_Vaughn99 as the 107th most impactful influencer in the election,[8] above NBC News, Stephen Colbert and Newt Gingrich.[3] The account was described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "one of the most prolific and longstanding alt-right personalities on Twitter".[9] According to HuffPost and a team of data scientists, Vaughn was the top promoter of the @TEN_GOP Twitter account, which was controlled by the Russian Internet Research Agency.[10][2]

Vaughn was part of several private pro-Trump group chats, where members brainstormed ways to influence the 2016 presidential election.[11] They discussed ways to frame Hillary Clinton as a "warmonger" and to promote the narrative that Bernie Sanders had been "cheated" in the Democratic Party primaries, to stir his supporters' resentment against Clinton and the Democratic Party.[12] Vaughn and others promoted the #DraftOurDaughters hashtag falsely implying that Clinton would draft women into the military, and made memes suggesting to left-leaning voters that their friends secretly intended to vote for Trump.[3] The New York Times described these disinformation campaigns as being run with "surgical precision", as they looked for ways to make them more viral and "dissected changes in wording and colors to make their messages more effective".[4]

In podcasts and interviews hosted by white nationalists, Vaughn explained that his radicalization started with the Ron Paul 2008 presidential campaign. Then, after the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin, he became a believer in cultural Marxism and other antisemitic conspiracy theories. Vaughn said "I owe a lot to" Milo Yiannopoulos and Mike Cernovich, who were involved in the anti-feminist Gamergate harassment campaign.[2] During the 2016 election, Vaughn promoted antisemitic and white nationalist memes.[3][13][4] Vaughn said that through Twitter, he aimed to "introduce ideas of racial consciousness" and "racial separatism" to mainstream conservatives.[2]

In 2018, after a feud, white supremacist Paul Nehlen revealed that Mackey was behind the Vaughn persona, and neo-Nazi Christopher Cantwell posted a recent photograph of Mackey. HuffPost confirmed Mackey's identity in an exposé.[2][11]

Attempted voter suppression

In 2016, Mackey promoted internet memes falsely claiming that it was possible to vote for Hillary Clinton through text messages; the memes were targeted at Black and Latino voters, and were designed to look like official Clinton campaign ads, reusing her campaign logo, slogans, and fine print.[11] One of the memes said "Avoid the Line. Vote from Home."[5] At least 4,900 people tried to vote by texting the number shown in the memes.[4] Around the time Mackey promoted these memes, he discussed ways to "limit black turnout" and described black voters as "gullible".[5][12]

Mackey was arrested in January 2021 for attempted voter suppression, alongside several co-conspirators. The New York Times identified one of them as alt-right influencer Anthime Gionet, known online as Baked Alaska.[4] Mackey was found guilty of conspiracy against rights by a federal jury in March 2023, facing up to 10 years in jail.[5] In his trial, Mackey said that he had changed since 2016, and had started therapy in 2018.[14] In October, he was sentenced to 7 months in jail.[12]

Post-arrest media interviews

After his conviction and sentencing, Mackey was interviewed by Tucker Carlson[15] and Donald Trump Jr.[16]

Carlson falsely claimed that Mackey was being jailed for "mocking Hillary Clinton on the internet", rather than for a voter suppression scheme.[17][18] In a 2021 show, Carlson had described Mackey as a victim of political persecution and did not bring up Mackey's racist tweets, stating that "we have no idea what Doug Mackey’s views are".[19] Donald Trump Jr. encouraged viewers to donate to Mackey's legal fund and said that Ricky Vaughn "may be my favorite Twitter account of all time".[16]

Claims that Mackey had been jailed for merely criticizing Hillary Clinton were spread by right-wing commentator Dinesh D'Souza, by online magazine The Post Millennial, and by an Instagram account which received 70,000 likes. The claims were rated "False" by USA Today.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "Far-right influencer convicted in voter suppression scheme". AP News. 2023-03-31. Retrieved 2023-08-12.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Trump's Most Influential White Nationalist Troll Is A Middlebury Grad Who Lives In Manhattan". HuffPost. 2018-04-05. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Nashrulla, Tasneem; Mac, Ryan (2021-01-27). "The Racist Guy Behind One Of The Most Influential Pro-Trump Twitter Accounts Was Arrested For Election Interference". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hong, Nicole (2021-01-27). "Twitter Troll Tricked 4,900 Democrats in Vote-by-Phone Scheme, U.S. Says". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-08-12.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Wang, Amy B.; Jacobs, Shayna (2023-04-01). "Trump supporter found guilty in 2016 Twitter scheme to undermine Hillary Clinton". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-08-12.
  6. ↑ "Far-right influencer convicted in voter suppression scheme". Politico. Associated Press. 2023-03-31. Retrieved 2023-08-12.
  7. ↑ "Douglass Mackey '11, far-right troll, arrested for 2016 election interference". The Middlebury Campus. Retrieved 2023-08-12.
  8. ↑ "Far-right influencer convicted in voter suppression scheme". AP News. 2023-03-31. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  9. ↑ "Alt-Right Celebrity @Ricky_Vaughn99 Suspended From Twitter". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  10. ↑ Menn, Joseph (May 26, 2021). "U.S. steps up pursuit of far-right activists in 2016 voter suppression probe". Reuters. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
  11. 1 2 3 Lyles, Taylor (2021-01-27). "Twitter troll faces 10 years in prison for spreading vote-by-text hoax". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  12. 1 2 3 Moynihan, Colin (2023-10-18). "Man Who Spread Misinformation on Trump's Behalf Sentenced to 7 Months". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  13. ↑ "Twitter troll arrested, accused of election interference related to disinformation campaign". NBC News. 2021-01-27. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  14. ↑ "Far-right influencer sentenced to 7 months in 2016 voter suppression scheme". AP News. 2023-10-18. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  15. ↑ "Tucker Carlson Interviews Clinton critic jailed for mocking Hillary online: Rising reacts". The Hill. 2023-11-10. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  16. 1 2 Kaplan, Alex (2023-12-12). "Donald Trump Jr. tells white nationalist that he "may be my favorite Twitter account of all time"". Media Matters for America. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  17. ↑ Norton, Tom (2023-11-10). "Fact Check: Is Doug Mackey going to jail for mocking Hillary Clinton?". Newsweek. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  18. 1 2 "Twitter user convicted for false voting information, not Hillary Clinton memes | Fact check". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  19. ↑ "Tucker Carlson Neglected to Mention "Conservative Journalist" Has a Racist Past". Vanity Fair. 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
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