Tik Tok Conservative and Gateway Pundit Contributor, Victor Nieves lies about the case of Douglass Mackey AKA Ricky Vaughn.
By: Conor J. Kelly
In this age of social media and political discourse, it is very easy for one to lose sight of the truth. Poor regulation by social media companies and addictive algorithms make it easier for lies, half-truths, and misinformation to spread. One app, in particular, has grown to be a major source of misinformation, TikTok. However, it is not always the case that such misinformation is based on outright deception. That can’t be said for conservative TikToker and Gateway Pundit contributor Victor Nieves and his coverage of the sentencing of right-wing meme poster Douglass Mackey, AKA Rickey Vaughn.
Who is Victor Nieves?
Victor Nieves is a large but fringe TikTok user with nearly seventy thousand followers and over a million likes on the app and enjoys a strong eleven thousand subscribers on YouTube despite not uploading often. This is in part thanks to his work on the far-right site, The Gateway Pundit, as well as his book, Conservative Prudence: Fighting For America The Right Way (2022).
Staunchly homophobic and opposed to marriage equality, Nieves is not only a fringe figure thanks to his association with the Gateway Pundit, he is firmly at odds with the consensus of the American public. A June poll conducted by Gallup found that an estimated seventy- one percent of Americans support gay marriage.
Even without his position on gay marriage, Nieves is far from unwilling to hold water for the right-wing propaganda machine, primarily using Gateway Pundit articles to support his claims, despite it being rated very low in reliability by Mediabiascheck.
It is perhaps unsurprising then that Nieves would be spreading misinformation, as he does so quite regularly, one time claiming that Covid lockdowns would return, only for them to never appear. That is not surprising, considering his video cited Alex Jones’ InfoWars, a far-right conspiracy website. While ridiculous, the post does not show much evidence of outright lying by Nieves. The same can’t be said about his post on the far-right Twitter user, Douglass Mackey, AKA Rickey Vaughn.
Who is Rickey Vaugn?
Rickey Vaughn is the pseudonym of a far-right Twitter user and meme poster. He was known for multiple racist posts involving both antisemitism and anti-Black prejudice. Much of his work involved racist posts where he accused Jewish people of controlling the media for the benefit of Black people and at the expense of white people. In 2018, The Huffington Post exposed his identity, and he eventually dropped his false identity.
In 2021, he was indicted for a plan to trick Hillary Clinton voters into voting via text during the 2016 election. According to the indictment, nearly five thousand people attempted to vote this way, resulting in Mackey being charged with violating the rights of voters. In March of this year, he was convicted after prosecutors noted he was in a group with other influencers planning to restrict Black turnout via misinformation, and recently, he was sentenced to seven months in jail. However, if you listen to Nieves, that is not at all what happened.
Not So Honest Coverage
In a video posted to TikTok on October 18th, Nieves claimed that Mackey was convicted and sentenced for merely posting memes and trolling Clinton supporters. He also argues that the actions by Mackey are commonplace online as a sort of joke. He also condescendingly says that if someone falls for this trick, they probably shouldn’t be voting in the first place, as if he has the authority to decide who should vote.
There’s just one problem. Nieves’ own source provides information that he simply doesn’t tell his audience. His source, Pro-Trump Meme Maker Douglass Mackey, AKA, ‘Ricky Vaughn,’ Sentenced to 7 Months in Prison for Trolling Hillary Clinton During 2016 Election (2023) by Cristina Laila, also argues that Mackey is being improperly imprisoned for jokes. However, what it mentions, and Nieves doesn’t, is that prosecutors were alleging that Mackey was involved with a group of people who intentionally sought to restrict Black turnout.
In the exact article Nieves uses as a background, Laila notes:
According to the unsealed indictment, Mackey conspired with others on Twitter to encourage black people to cast their votes via text message.
The Eastern District of New York said in its indictment that one week before the 2016 election, Mackey tweeted an image of a black woman in front of an “African Americans for President Hillary” sign.
Cristina Laila, Pro-Trump Meme Maker Douglass Mackey, AKA, ‘Ricky Vaughn,’ Sentenced to 7 Months in Prison for Trolling Hillary Clinton During 2016 Election, 2023.
Nowhere in the fifty-two-second video does Nieves mention the alleged intent to prevent Black voters from participating in the 2016 election, nor does he or his source mention Mackey’s consistent hatred of Black and Jewish people. Instead, he casts Mackey as a hapless jokester on Twitter who happens to be conservative. That dishonest framing and complete disregard for the context of the indictment and subsequent conviction should disqualify Nieves as a serious commentator. When the Gateway Pundit, your own media site, is being more honest than you are, it might be a good idea to reevaluate your decision-making.
It is one thing to worry about the way this ruling can impact speech on the internet. It is another thing entirely to lie and hide key context that would change the way people view a given topic. Mackey was not arrested for being a troll; he was arrested for engaging in a plan to rob people of their basic rights through social media manipulation. If Nieves or other conservative commentators like him want people to take them seriously, they might want to try a bit of honesty. Though considering the state of the rest of his content, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
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