Vanity Magazine Writer Sues Twitter Bully Over Seizure
In yet another event of online bullying, Kurt Eichenwald, writer at Vanity and Newsweek, suffered from a seizure on December 16, as a Twitter troll @jew_goldstien sent him a GIF image despite knowing his epilepsy condition.
“You deserve a seizure for your post,” tweeted @jew_goldstein in response to Kurt’s tweet as he posted a GIF image.
A while later, Kurt’s wife tweeted from his account announcing that her husband had actually had a seizure as a result of photosensitivity.
“This is his wife, you caused a seizure. I have your information and have called the police to report the assault,” tweeted the fashion magazine writer’s wife.
This is his wife, you caused a seizure. I have your information and have called the police to report the assault.
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016
Over the next couple of days, Kurt took to Twitter to announce that he’ll be pursuing legal action against the Twitter bully @jew_goldstein.
“Last night, for the second time, a deplorable aware I have epilepsy tweeted a strobe at me with the message “you deserve a seizure’ on it. It worked,” tweeted Kurt.
Last night, for the second time, a deplorable aware I have epilepsy tweeted a strobe at me with the message "you deserve a seizure' on it…
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016
“This is not going to happen again. My wife is terrified. I am…disgusted. All I will be tweeting for the next few days are copies of documents from the litigation, police reports, etc.,” he continued.
He further added, “Once we have the lawsuit filed, we will be subpoenaing Twitter for the identity of the individual who engaged in this cross-state assault. At this point, the police are attempting to determine if this is a lawsuit.”
…copies of documents from the litigation, police reports etc. Once we have the lawsuit filed, we will be subpoenaing Twitter for the…
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016
“So if any of you others think about trying this “cute” prank, consider the consequences. They will be severe,” tweeted the journalist.
…lawsuit. So if any of you others think about trying this "cute" prank, consider the consequences. They will be severe.
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016
Twitter has already suspended the account of the troll and also introduced the policy of not converting PNG files to GIF animations.
“Using PNGs for animation is difficult. APNGs are orders of magnitude larger than normal preview images. This can mean a slower app, increased memory use and even crashes. These problems make for an unpleasant Twitter experience, and there’s little that can be done to avoid it,” says Twitter in a statement.
Using PNGs for animation is difficult. APNGs are orders of magnitude larger than normal preview images. This can mean a slower app, increased memory use and even crashes. These problems make for an unpleasant Twitter experience, and there's little that can be done to avoid it. https://t.co/IsWwIm6mYz
— Engineering (@XEng) December 23, 2019
