Twitter troll Douglas Mackey allegedly committed “vote theft”
In 2016, Mackey had approximately 58,000 followers on Twitter, An analysis by the MIT Lab ranked him as the 107th most important influencer of the then-upcoming election. His ranking is higher than media outlets and personalities such as NBC News, Stephen Colbert, and Newt Gingrich.
In a statement, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Seth DuCharme said, “There is no place in public discourse for lies and misinformation to defraud citizens of their right to vote. 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.”
