
Twitter bans animated PNG files after attackers targeted users with epilepsy - botzombie
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/23/21035855/twitter-bans-apngs-trolls-seizures-epilepsy-foundation-attack
======
rs23296008n1
Effects that cause seizures in some are usually annoying to everyone else. Me
included. But autoplay of video in general is still useful.

They should move towards making it a preference. Disable auto-play animation
by default. Opt-in. This preserves freedom of expression while respecting
freedom to not have a seizure / freedom from irritating auto-play videos. PNG
format is handled by browser. Should be followed up with those guys as well to
prevent / control autoplay.

The ability to flag videos as strobing might help as well. Let the crowd find
and classify something for the rest of the crowd. Have a flag for "allow video
flagged as containing strobing".

All that said, as I think about this and just _some_ of the potential
mitigations, simply just banning it outright is a quick, straightforward and
simple solution. I completely get why they'd just do that. Life is short.

------
zzo38computer
Animated PNG files causing problems with some users isn't a problem with
Twitter, I should think (and it seems it is independent of the file format, so
whether it is GIF, PNG, or MPEG, it would be the same problem, I should
think); it is the browser. The user should configure the browser to disable
animations by default if that is what is wanted. (If the browser does not
implement that, then the browser writer should fix it so that it does.)

------
sircastor
It seems to me that some sort of lookahead function could be implemented to
detect this sort of attack at the browser level.

Also, what is wrong with people?

~~~
pickdenis
Honestly, reading this article was the first time I saw a documented case of
strobes causing seizures. It's possible (and this is purely speculation) that
the attacker sent the strobe to give some comedic punch to the statement "you
deserve a seizure" not expecting or hoping that it would actually cause a
seizure.

~~~
krapp
>Honestly, reading this article was the first time I saw a documented case of
strobes causing seizures

It's been common knowledge at least since the Porygon episode of Pokemon[0] in
the late 90s.

>It's possible (and this is purely speculation) that the attacker sent the
strobe to give some comedic punch to the statement "you deserve a seizure" not
expecting or hoping that it would actually cause a seizure.

It's possible but knowing people and the internet, it's more likely they were
hoping an actual seizure _would_ be the "comedic punch."

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denn%C5%8D_Senshi_Porygon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denn%C5%8D_Senshi_Porygon)

------
pickdenis
What's preventing Twitter from making APNGs work the same way as animated
GIFs? (e.g. you have to explicitly click the play button)

~~~
kick
Twitter automatically plays .gif now for new users.

