Far-Right Twitter Influencer Found Guilty of Spreading Misinformation to Voters

A far-right Twitter influencer was found guilty in a New York federal court Friday of spreading misinformation to Hillary Clinton supporters ahead of the 2016 presidential election, in a case involving a rare federal charge and a legal test of free speech on social media.

A jury in Brooklyn convicted Douglass Mackey of a single criminal count after prosecutors said he plotted with other Twitter users to create memes intended to trick supporters of Mrs. Clinton into thinking they could cast a ballot by texting a phone number or posting a hashtag on social media. Federal prosecutors said Mr. Mackey supported Donald Trump in the 2016 race and hoped to reduce voter turnout for Mrs. Clinton by creating and sharing the memes.