• Malicious tweet gives journalist Kurt Eichenwald a seizure
    78 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Ninja Gnome;51540465]i saw the tweet he received, it was this gif [highlight][URL="http://www.burned.org/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1714&g2_serialNumber=4"]SEIZURE WARNING DO NOT CLICK IF YOU HAVE EPILEPSY[/URL][/highlight][/QUOTE] I have epilepsy and looked at this and nothing happened... Guess it doesn't effect everyone. Mind you I do take medication.
[QUOTE=The Commander;51541245]I have epilepsy and looked at this and nothing happened... Guess it doesn't effect everyone. Mind you I do take medication.[/QUOTE] As you're probably aware of, epilepsy comes in different forms. I've always wondered how exactly blinking light trigger it though. Such an odd thing.
[QUOTE=OvB;51540586]Maybe a plug in that makes it so you have to click on a gig to play it?[/QUOTE] They exist (for Mozilla based at least) but wouldn't work here, "gifs" on twitter are actually auto playing videos. Might be addons that stop auto playing videos, but since he's on iOS he's fucked.
[QUOTE=helifreak;51541354]They exist (for Mozilla based at least) but wouldn't work here, "gifs" on twitter are actually auto playing videos. Might be addons that stop auto playing videos, but since he's on iOS he's fucked.[/QUOTE] There's [URL="https://www.mozilla.org/de/firefox/ios/"]Firefox for iOS[/URL] (but considering Apple's ridiculous policies, that one probably doesn't have extensions). [editline]17th December 2016[/editline] In any case, it would be a good idea to make an add-on that stops gifs, videos and also takes care of JS-based flickering by disallowing [I]requestAnimationFrame[/I], [I]setTimeout[/I] and whatever else there is.
[QUOTE=helifreak;51541354]They exist (for Mozilla based at least) but wouldn't work here, "gifs" on twitter are actually auto playing videos. Might be addons that stop auto playing videos, but since he's on iOS he's fucked.[/QUOTE] looking at gifs on my timeline now and they do not autoplay. i did not change any options. although now i don't remember if they ever did autoplay before. could twitter have changed this since this incident?
What an asshole.
[QUOTE=The Commander;51541245]I have epilepsy and looked at this and nothing happened... Guess it doesn't effect everyone. Mind you I do take medication.[/QUOTE] Not everyone that has epilepsy gets seizure from flashing lights, i can stare at that all day and nothing will happen even if i was off meds. Doctors don't know the cause of epilepsy for a lot of people or the brain abnormalities that cause them.
[QUOTE=TheJoey;51541577]looking at gifs on my timeline now and they do not autoplay. i did not change any options. although now i don't remember if they ever did autoplay before. could twitter have changed this since this incident?[/QUOTE] Still auto playing for me.
[QUOTE=SpaceGhost;51541589]Not everyone that has epilepsy gets seizure from flashing lights, i can stare at that all day and nothing will happen even if i was off meds. Doctors don't know the cause of epilepsy for a lot of people or the brain abnormalities that cause them.[/QUOTE] Can confirm this. I only had epilepsy once, and that was 2003. And these dont trigger me, and i did take meds for 5 years.
[QUOTE=EddieLTU;51541915]Can confirm this. I only had epilepsy once, and that was 2003. And these dont trigger me, and i did take meds for 5 years.[/QUOTE] So is this case a situation of someone trying to do harm by way of an old wives tale, and having it actually work? Or is it publicly known that Mr. Eichenwald reacts badly to this specific form of image.
[QUOTE=Omali;51540537]Oh hey, what a surprise, an alt-right troll account with an anti-Semitic name. What a surprise.[/QUOTE] "jew_goldstein"
So I went on to /pol/ to see their response... [img]http://i.imgur.com/UdRmYp8.png[/img] Just what you'd expect, really.
Scary. I've seen firsthand how easily some people's epilepsy can be triggered. I taught a high school animation course and I figured out the hard way that just zooming in on a model too quickly could be enough of a contrast change that one guy had to leave the room and calm himself down. After that I learned to be very careful with anything animated.
/pol/ is now saying that this was a basilisk straight out of science fiction. [url]http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v402/n6761/full/402465a0.html[/url]
[QUOTE=AnonymaPizza;51542114]So I went on to /pol/ to see their response... [img]http://i.imgur.com/UdRmYp8.png[/img] Just what you'd expect, really.[/QUOTE] Yes, he faked it so that he may report the "troll" to the police so they arrest the... Oh wait
[QUOTE=TheJoey;51541577]looking at gifs on my timeline now and they do not autoplay. i did not change any options. although now i don't remember if they ever did autoplay before. could twitter have changed this since this incident?[/QUOTE] It wouldn't be difficult for them to change it so they very well might have. Before now they autoplayed gifs and videos (muted by default) when you scrolled over them. [url=https://jsfiddle.net/Alice3173/pxepjtpk/]This[/url] took me about ten minutes to work up so someone who does this sort of thing for a living could surely make something similar even easier. It displays the first frame of the gif until you click it in which case it starts playing.
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[QUOTE=Chaitin;51540526]No, it does fit with the common law definition of assault.[/QUOTE] They should probably slap an attempted murder charge onto that as well.
[QUOTE=da space core;51542231]Yes, he faked it so that he may report the "troll" to the police so they arrest the... Oh wait[/QUOTE] If this was fake, he would have done it to gain popularity, people eat shit that paints anything non left in bad light super easily.
[QUOTE=bunguer;51542645]Any controversial person with such a sensitive epilepsy that can be triggered by such GIFs should be a lot more careful, not that it is his fault but the internet is a very trollish place and these "attacks" aren't unheard of, there are addons to disable GIFs and videos from auto-playing.[/QUOTE] Especially if it's happened before.
As someone who once suffered from epilepsy i wouldnt wish an epileptic seizure on anyone. Do we know how bad the seizure was? If it was full on convulsions then this very easily couldve killed him. The person who did this should be made an example of abd given the harshest possible sentence to deter copycats.
[QUOTE=AnonymaPizza;51542157]/pol/ is now saying that this was a basilisk straight out of science fiction. [url]http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v402/n6761/full/402465a0.html[/url][/QUOTE] Oh, neat that this comes up: There are actually a few short stories about this by the author/set in that universe. They're pretty good, so I highly recommend reading them if you're even a little interested in the concept.
There actually is an option in Twitter to disable any autoplay. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/j4JjFfg.jpg[/IMG] Puts a play button over any media content. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/4sbE1LZ.jpg[/IMG]
Can you still just be tricked tho they just send something very relevant looking with the first frames, you click it, and then flashing lights
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;51544553]Can you still just be tricked tho they just send something very relevant looking with the first frames, you click it, and then flashing lights[/QUOTE] From what I've seen, it was just that .gif being posted without it masquerading as anything else. Which leads to the question why the hell he either didn't disable autoplay or clicked it on purpose while knowing that it is hazardous to his health. Sure, it wasn't nice of the guy who sent him that at all, but how does someone still fall for something that oblivious despite having a close call before, according to his own words.
[QUOTE=EddieLTU;51541915]Can confirm this. I only had epilepsy once, and that was 2003. And these dont trigger me, and i did take meds for 5 years.[/QUOTE] What do you mean once? Once you have it you almost always have it for life unless you got surgery, which sucks because you cant get it if the abnormal brain activity stems from the left hemisphere of your brain.
You shouldn't have to be even slightly tech savvy to use Twitter just because you have a disability. Most people probably don't install browser extensions, or know how to.
[QUOTE=Jordax;51545093]From what I've seen, it was just that .gif being posted without it masquerading as anything else. Which leads to the question why the hell he either didn't disable autoplay or clicked it on purpose while knowing that it is hazardous to his health. Sure, it wasn't nice of the guy who sent him that at all, but how does someone still fall for something that oblivious despite having a close call before, according to his own words.[/QUOTE] Well, yeah, but it was deliberately sent to attack him. It's not some random thing he stumbled upon If I wanted to give someone a seizure, and knew that say, autoplay was off by default or that the addons were popular, of course I'd dress up the first frame and then send it on.
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[QUOTE=bunguer;51545493]Well yeah, it's not actually his fault but considering how life dangerous these things are, how it happened before, and how you can't really stop people from trolling, perhaps it's time to do something about protecting himself. Tech savvy or not, it's much more practical for him to protect himself than to rely on the goodness of others.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't necessarily call this 'trolling', but yes. You can't rely on other people not trying to harm you in a situation where that's both easy and you expect that there are people who want to get rid of you. [editline]18th December 2016[/editline] That said, I don't think there's a browser extension available that would prevent this completely.
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