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. 

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Source: The Huffington Post

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