Trial Set To Begin For Meme-Posting Doug Mackey, Who Faces 10 Year Charge For Memes Relating To Voter Misinformation In 2016

Doug Mackey, a political memer who posted memes encouraging Hillary Clinton supporters to vote for the candidate via phone and social media instead of in person, is set to begin trial for misinformation and constitutional rights violations.

During the 2016 Presidential Election, Mackey posted a political ad meme that was supposed to look like official correspondence from the Clinton campaign, encouraging its voting base to vote by posting "Hillary" with the hashtag "#PresidentialElection" on voting day.

According to the press release from the Department of Justice, "Mackey made coordinated use of social media to spread disinformation relevant to the impending 2016 Presidential Election. The disinformation spread by these individuals often took the form of 'memes.'"

Mackey reportedly used group chats to coordinate the misinformation campaign and how to make their posts as believable as possible to fool people, ultimately using the same color scheme and design as Clinton's official ads.

The reaction to the charges online was somewhat divisive, with many defending Mackey and his right to post memes without facing 10 years in prison, while some felt the charges were justified and others too harsh.

TUCKER: Today, the FBI showed up at 31-year-old Doug Mackey's (AKA Ricky Vaughn's) house, a "conservative journalist" in Florida. He's facing 10 years for disinformation "in the form of memes."

(Thoughts? Some might argue this is the kind of moron conservatives need to ditch.) pic.twitter.com/NemmaCoWAX

— August Takala (@RudyTakala) January 28, 2021

One of the central points of the case, Mackey's posting about false Election Day procedure that would ensure the person didn't actually vote if they followed through, is also being attributed to another political poster by some proponents of Mackey — except many noted this other person did not receive any charges.

On November 8th, 2016, the Twitter account belonging to comedian Kristina Wong posted to Donald Trump supporters that it was possible to text in their vote and actively said to skip the lines of "#Election2016" by not going in person.

This notably led to calls of bias against President Biden's Department of Justice for what they claim is caring about one case but not the other despite them being similar.

It is concerning because why was he charged but this “comedian” wasn’t for doing the same thing. Doug Mackey is being unfairly targeted by a vindictive DOJ. https://t.co/XPcCAzhf8C

— 🌱Weatherford_Administration💎 (@Run_the_numbers) March 13, 2023

However, others also pointed out that Wong's post was clearly a joke, while Mackey attempted to maliciously trick people.