Trial of 2016 Twitter Troll to Test Limits of Online Speech

The images appeared on Twitter in late 2016 just as the presidential campaign was entering its final stretch. Some featured the message “vote for Hillary” and the phrases “avoid the line” and “vote from home.” Aimed at Democratic voters, and sometimes singling out Black people, the messages were actually intended to help Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton. The goal, federal prosecutors said, was to suppress votes for Clinton by persuading her supporters to falsely believe they could cast presidential ballots by text message. The misinformation campaign was carried out by a group of conspirators, prosecutors said, including a man in his 20s who called himself Ricky Vaughn. He will go on trial in Federal District Court in Brooklyn under his real name, Douglass Mackey, after being charged with conspiring to spread misinformation designed to deprive others of their right to vote.