Saturday, March 18, 2017

Man Arrested For Tweeting Seizure-Inducing GIF To Reporter With Epilepsy

 

A tweet that caused a seizure has led to an FBI investigation and an arrest. It also exposed a terrifying way people with epilepsy can be attacked online.

The FBI arrested John Rayne Rivello, 29, of Salisbury, Maryland, on Friday on charges of cyberstalking, the agency said in a statement released Friday. Rivello is accused of tweeting a strobing animated image to Kurt Eichenwald of Dallas, a Newsweek political reporter who has written about his epilepsy.

The moving image, also known as a GIF, allegedly included the statement, “You deserve a seizure for your post.” When Eichenwald viewed the tweet, he suffered a seizure.

Eichenwald’s lawyer told The New York Times that Eichenwald was incapacitated for days, lost feeling in his hand and had trouble speaking for several weeks. 

Click here for the full article.

Source: The Huffington Post

No comments: