Court Overturns Conviction of Social Media Troll
A prominent social media troll, Douglas McKee, had his conviction for election interference dismissed by an appeals court. The court found insufficient evidence to support the charges against him.
In 2016, McKee operated a right-wing social media account that published a meme suggesting that supporters of Hillary Clinton could vote by sending a text to her phone. Prosecutors claimed this amounted to election interference.
The court observed that there was a lack of evidence proving that McKee had directly contacted others or conspired to restrict their voting rights.
Following Biden’s inauguration in 2021, McKee was indicted in connection with this alleged scheme. In 2023, he pleaded guilty and received a seven-month prison sentence.
On Wednesday, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned this conviction, stating there wasn’t enough evidence to sustain the allegations.
Judge Debra Anne Livingston remarked that the original verdict and conviction should be vacated.
The evidence presented at trial included a meme that depicted African Americans in support of Clinton. The meme asked viewers to “Please avoid. Vote from home” and contained instructions to text “Hilary” to a specific number to vote.
Prosecutors argued thousands of texts may have been sent in response to memes like McKee’s, given that his account had 58,000 followers and was influential during the election.
However, the appellate court concluded there was no evidence indicating voters were swayed by the memes posted on McKee’s account, nor that he had engaged directly with others in a conspiratorial manner to undermine voting rights.
Mackey expressed relief after the ruling, referencing it in social media posts with, “Praise God. He is good. Now we sue.”
Interestingly, he had been accused of sharing racist and anti-Semitic content during Trump’s initial presidential campaign, along with a profile picture of the fictional character Ricky Vaughn from the “Major League” films.
