
Malicious tweet gives journalist Kurt Eichenwald an epileptic seizure - YeGoblynQueenne
http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2016/12/twitter-used-to-attack-journalist-kurt-eichenwald-triggering-seizure/
======
concinds
The AssociatesMind article[0] on this is much better than the ArsTechnica
link, and goes into detail in the legal dimension of this question. In this
case, Kurt's situation likely constitutes assault; and this would also likely
be considered assault even if you believe that Eichenwald lied about having a
seizure, as I've seen some people question.

Here's the conclusion of that article:

"Just as someone can be held liable for a spring-gun despite being miles away,
there is no reason to think that someone cannot be held liable for assault
delivered electronically across great distances."

[0]: [http://associatesmind.com/2016/12/16/can-you-sue-someone-
for...](http://associatesmind.com/2016/12/16/can-you-sue-someone-for-a-tweet-
that-induces-epilepsy/)

~~~
mmastrac
I hadn't heard of a spring-gun before. Basically this is a booby trap with a
gun that shoots unattended when triggers.

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iaw
Wow, this is equivalent to sending someone a mail "bomb" that doesn't explode
but electrocutes them severely.

I hope the offender ends up with a reasonable length prison sentence. There's
a clear line, and the intentional infliction of physical harm is well beyond
it.

~~~
unfathomable
So to be clear, you want someone to be imprisoned because they sent a tweet.

~~~
mmastrac
Yes. This is akin to shouting fire in a crowded theatre [1] or phoning in a
bomb threat. In the United States, freedom of speech is limited in certain
cases where the harm caused by the speech outweighs the damage of limiting
freedom.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shouting_fire_in_a_crowded_the...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shouting_fire_in_a_crowded_theater)

~~~
SAI_Peregrinus
Please stop using the "fire in a crowded theatre" phrase, it's not actually
part of law in the US. [1] The standard for restricting speech in cases like
this is if it poses a "clear and present danger". That's likely the case here,
as a premeditated attempt to cause a seizure is a clear and present danger to
epileptics. There's plenty of law to cite that doesn't depend on over-broad
censorious decisions that got overturned later on.

[https://popehat.com/2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-
hackne...](https://popehat.com/2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-hackneyed-
apologia-for-censorship-are-enough/)

------
carlesfe
It's impossible not to reference Snow Crash by Stephenson. I wonder how much
"physical" damage can you deliver with an electronic message or image.

------
nickpsecurity
Precedent for this is the attack on Epilepsy Foundation website:

[https://archive.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/03/epi...](https://archive.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/03/epilepsy)

I'd support criminal charges for attackers who do this. It's just a digital
way of causing physical damage. The federal government is already all over
this stuff in terms of things like SCADA attacks. The FBI would be sympathetic
to the case given that plus hating hackers in general.

------
praptak
I wonder how hard would detection be for this kind of dangerous content. A
basic detection for rhythmic spikes in frame brightness should not be very
hard to implement.

~~~
alexandercrohde
Seems like the best solution to me would be an accessibility option on the
device that prevents this type of flashing. May seem hard, but compare that
against stopping people from being immature/malicious on the internet.

The added upside would be that it would prevent completely accidental cases of
exposure to flashes (e.g. watching an episode of Pokemon).

------
doctorpangloss
What if the accessibility settings let you set a maximum framerate for
automatically playing moving image content in Safari?

~~~
conistonwater
I'm looking at [http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/triggers-
seizures/photosensiti...](http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/triggers-
seizures/photosensitivity-and-seizures), and it seems it's not just the
framerate that matters. In particular, 5 to 30 frames per second might be
enough, and it depends on the actual image contents. It also makes it sound
like static images might also be triggers.

~~~
darkhorn
This explains why a guy had epilepsy in the metro few days ago. There are
bulbs every few meters apart in the tunnel and while the train travels fast it
looks like the windows of the metro train flash.

------
concinds
Twitter has a prominent checkbox in the setting allowing you to turn off
autoplaying of videos and GIFs. Given that most are not epileptic, and that
Eichenwald is, he should have had the mindfulness to check whether the
platform could be adapted to his needs.

~~~
antidaily
Prominence of that setting is debatable.

~~~
concinds
The checkbox is present in Twitter's main settings page (the one you land on
immediately after clicking "Settings", not a subsection) and is also above-
the-fold.

Also, I just found out he said a few months ago: "I was carrying my iPad,
looking at the still image on the video and, without thinking, touched the
PLAY button."

So it seems he's aware of it.

------
wfzimmerman
I'm looking for someeone who call help me build a mitigating plugin.

[https://github.com/fredzannarbor/strobefree](https://github.com/fredzannarbor/strobefree)

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sappapp
No record of pressed charges as of this morning. Seems more likely to be a
media redirection of his meltdown with Tucker Carlson.

