A RIGHT-WING social media activist was sentenced to seven months in federal prison on Wednesday for spreading falsehoods via the social media site now known as X, in an effort to suppress Democratic turnout in the 2016 United States presidential election.

Douglass Mackey, who posted under the alias Ricky Vaughn, was convicted in March of the charge of conspiracy against rights after a trial in federal court in Brooklyn.

Prosecutors said that Mr Mackey, who had 58,000 followers on the platform, conspired with others between September and November of 2016 to post falsely state that supporters of Democrat Hillary Clinton could vote for her by text message or social media post.