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posted by Fnord666 on Friday December 20 2019, @04:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the assault-with-a-deadly-file dept.

The case of Newsweek journalist Kurt Eichenwald, who on December 15, 2016 received a nasty animated GIF on Twitter which triggered an epileptic seizure (previous SN coverage here, here, and here) set off a highly unusual court battle, which is now coming to a head. John Rayne Rivello, the one who sent Eichenwald the GIF that caused his seizure, is expected to plead guilty to aggravated assault. The Washington Post reports:

The GIF set off a highly unusual court battle that is expected to equip those in similar circumstances with a new tool for battling threatening trolls and cyberbullies. On Monday, the man accused of sending Eichenwald the moving image, John Rayne Rivello, was set to appear in a Dallas County district court. A last-minute rescheduling delayed the proceeding until Jan. 31, but Rivello is still expected to plead guilty to aggravated assault. And he may be the first of many.

The Epilepsy Foundation announced on Monday it lodged a sweeping slate of criminal complaints against a legion of copycats who targeted people with epilepsy and sent them an onslaught of strobe GIFs — a frightening phenomenon that unfolded in a short period of time during the organization's marking of National Epilepsy Awareness Month in November.

With Rivello's expected guilty plea, the foundation has a legal road map for fighting back.

[...] Lawyers for Rivello, a 32-year-old veteran who lived in Salisbury, Md., did not respond to requests for comment.

Eichenwald's attorney, Steven Lieberman, has an arsenal of analogies he uses when comparing the assault to more commonplace violence. It's like anthrax in an envelope, he said, or digging a pit trap for a blind person, or like shining a laser pointer in the eyes of a pilot trying to land a plane.

"The fact that an electric impulse was used rather than an envelope for poison makes no difference," Lieberman said. "This is an issue of an assault using a new sort of technology."

Rivello's supporters — among them, neo-Nazis and white nationalists, including Richard Spencer — have also argued that the issue is about freedom of speech. But in an amicus brief to the criminal case, the First Amendment Clinic at Duke University School of Law argued such actions are not constitutionally protected.

"A brawler who tattoos a message onto his knuckles does not throw every punch with the weight of First Amendment protection behind him," the brief stated. "Conduct like this does not constitute speech, nor should it. A deliberate attempt to cause physical injury to someone does not come close to the expression which the First Amendment is designed to protect."


Original Submission

Related Stories

Epilepsy Patient Assaulted Via Twitter 74 comments

Newsweek journalist Kurt Eichenwald, who is known to be suffering from epilepsy, reported on twitter that someone tweeted him a seizure-inducing image. This is not the first time it happened, but this attempt was (apparently) successful in triggering a seizure.

This might be the first physical attack on a person perpetrated via the internet. A sad point in history, in my view.

Links: coverage from Ars Technica, Eichenwald's Twitter feed. I'm not linking to the offending image - you're big enough to find it on your own and apparently it is quite horrible even for people who do not suffer from epilepsy.

Eichenwald has tweeted that he is involving law enforcement.

Any ideas on how hard it would be to filter out seizure-inducing media (make it click-to-view/play)?


Original Submission

Alleged Epilepsy-Triggering Troll Arrested by the FBI 35 comments

Three months after a journalist reported being attacked by a troll who posted a seizure-inducing image on Twitter, a suspect has been arrested:

A man accused of triggering an epileptic seizure of senior Newsweek writer Kurt Eichenwald through a tweet was arrested by the FBI on Friday morning. An FBI spokesman said the name of the suspect has not been released but confirmed that an arrest was made, Dallas News reported.

The arrest comes three months after Eichenwald said he suffered a seizure after someone sent him a video clip of a flashing strobe light in an intentional effort to trigger his epilepsy. A Twitter account called @jew_goldstein — which has since been suspended — responded to Eichenwald with a gif of flashing strobe lights and a message: "You deserve a seizure for that post." Shortly after, Eichenwald's account tweeted: "This is his wife, you caused a seizure. I have your information and have called the police to report the assault."

From the Dallas News article:

The agency announced that John Rayne Rivello, 29, of Salisbury, Md., was arrested Friday morning in Maryland on a cyberstalking charge.

[...] Eichenwald's attorney, Steven Liberman, told Newsweek that "What Mr. Rivello did with his Twitter message was no different from someone sending a bomb in the mail or sending an envelope filled with anthrax spores."

[...] According to a criminal complaint, messages sent from Rivello's Twitter account mentioned Eichenwald, saying "I know he has epilepsy," "I hope this sends him into a seizure" and "let's see if he dies."

Authorities also found an screenshot of Eichenwald's Wikipedia page on Rivello's iCloud account, the criminal complaint said, altered to list his date of death as Dec. 16, 2016. Other files on the iCloud account include a list of things that trigger epileptic seizures and a screenshot of a Dallas Observer article about Eichenwald's attempts to find the person who tweeted at him.

[...] On Friday, Eichenwald said that more than 40 people sent him strobes once they found out that they could trigger seizures.


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @04:23AM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @04:23AM (#934541)

    Eichenwald celebrated the news by lubing up and opening all the vanilla hentai pornography he could find. No tentacles or strobing pikachu GIFs.

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by szopin on Friday December 20 2019, @05:04AM (5 children)

      by szopin (5710) on Friday December 20 2019, @05:04AM (#934556) Homepage Journal

      why are people not willing to use their username for tentacle porn comments?

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @07:06AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @07:06AM (#934583)

        They know who they are and that should be enough?

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday December 20 2019, @04:00PM

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday December 20 2019, @04:00PM (#934670) Journal

        You tell me, ALICE!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @06:53PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @06:53PM (#934758)

        Who wants to be marked as a sucker?

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by linkdude64 on Saturday December 21 2019, @03:23PM (1 child)

        by linkdude64 (5482) on Saturday December 21 2019, @03:23PM (#934989)

        I will - Kurt Eichenwald uploaded a picture of a piece of mail he received, and in the background his computer screen was visible. In an open tab on his internet browser, he had hentai opened that included fetish tags such as BBW, facesitting, defloration, etc. He later was discovered to also have tentacle porn open on his computer, and denied it publicly, before correcting his statement and claiming that he was only - and I quote - "researching" it, to prove to his wife that it exists.

        youtube.com/watch?v=Cd1fybhviro

        • (Score: 2, Funny) by szopin on Friday December 27 2019, @11:56PM

          by szopin (5710) on Friday December 27 2019, @11:56PM (#936698) Homepage Journal

          Yet you still avoided the answer to the question: why would tentacle porn connoiseur pretend to have nothing to do with tentacle porn?

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday December 20 2019, @05:13PM (1 child)

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday December 20 2019, @05:13PM (#934703) Homepage

      Huh, speaking of the Japanese, I wonder if I can sue Fox and Matt Groening for that Simpsons episode where they go to Japan and Bart turns on the seizure-inducing cartoon. [youtu.be]

      Yes, believe it or not, before the 'Tribe started accelerating their hugbox censorship campaign across all media, the Simpsons was actually a great show. Eichenwald strikes me as a Weinstein type anyway, an embellishing or outright lying malingerer who will bully people all day and then run and hide behind his "disability" as if it were some kind of excuse for being a shithead. Eichenwald playing victim here is like Harvey Weinstein showing up to court in a walker, then a day after that photo shoot he magically became fine and ditched the walker. And these are the same people who are actively subverting our political process and trying to defeat Trump.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @06:55PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @06:55PM (#934759)

        Yep. I should shoot you in the head and there's no way you should hold me responsible because your head isn't impervious to bullets. You're just weak for not having the right skin.

        Oh, and Trump sucks.

  • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @09:02AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @09:02AM (#934591)

    Eichenwald is a POS.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Booga1 on Friday December 20 2019, @09:51AM (12 children)

    by Booga1 (6333) on Friday December 20 2019, @09:51AM (#934598)

    This is an interesting case. Despite many users here holding broad support for free speech, I find it quite telling that not a single comment has been posted in support of Rivello's actions here.

    What I find rather gratifying is the way this was handled by using existing law to address the situation. It always bugs me when people throw up their hands and give up because it happened "on a computer," often followed by an outcry calling for new laws to be made.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @11:39AM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @11:39AM (#934607)

      This is an interesting case. Despite many users here holding broad support for free speech, I find it quite telling that not a single comment has been posted in support of Rivello's actions here.

      Free speech is one thing, being the sort of cunt who sends flashing imagery to a known epileptic with the sole intent of causing seizures is quite another..

      In TFA I noticed he'd plead guilty to 'aggravated assault' and the phrase '..attempt to cause physical injury to someone..' was used. Do a search on 'Status epilepticus', as the intent to induce a seizure was clear, as extreme as this may sound, he should have been up on a charge of attempted murder 'Pour encourager les autres'.

      Touchy subject with me, I worked alongside someone for years who was epileptic, she was about to start a new job as a teacher, suffered a fit when alone which developed into status from which she never recovered, and was later found dead by her mother.

      • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @12:00PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @12:00PM (#934612)

        They just break some law or another when they believe no one is looking.

        he should have been up on a charge of attempted murder 'Pour encourager les autres'.

        Your ilk twisting laws and facts into tortured shapes to serve your ends, destroy any belief in law still lingering in our world.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @03:15PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @03:15PM (#934656)

          Your ilk twisting laws and facts into tortured shapes to serve your ends, destroy any belief in law still lingering in our world.

          Well, look at it this way,

          In context, the impression I'm currently getting is that we're talking about fucking idiots who send flashing images to known epileptics with the intent to try cause seizures thinking 'hurr durr, no harm, it's only for the LULZ'.

          The reality is, it's like taking a revolver that someone else has loaded half the chambers with blanks, one loaded an expanding bullet horror of your choice and the rest empty, and you pointing it to the victim's head, spinning the cylinder and firing it point blank. You might be aiming to just scare/humiliate your victim, but you might kill them or nothing might happen, that's the point, you'll never know 'till you pull the trigger.

          Seizures cause damage/physical injury, the jury's still out on the issue of them causing long term cumulative damage to the brain, but ISTR they're leaning favourably towards that conclusion.

          Just think about it, had Eichenwald gone into Status and/or suffered SUDEP after Rivello's stunt what would you say his legal position would be?, the law already regards his tweet with the image as a "deadly weapon”, if he could prove to be a clueless fuckwit who had no other understanding of epilepsy other than 'hurr durr, flashing images, and the victim then fits pissing their pants' then the best he could have hoped for is manslaughter, if he was aware of the possibility of inducing Status epilepticus or SUDEP, then it's murder, the law is usually quite clear on the subjects of intent, cause and effect.

          As is, thankfully no death occurred, he's being allowed to go for an "aggravated assault" plea as I'm assuming they've decided he's a clueless fuckwit, this decision I don't agree with.

          In my view, when I said 'Pour encourager les autres' in this case, it isn't about somehow twisting the law to serve any personal ends, it's about wanting the maximum sanctions available to the law 'as-is' for an assault with a deadly weapon to be applied to send a clear message to these idiots that their 'hilarious' online actions have real-world consequences and wont be tolerated, and that the law *will* take these actions and their intent seriously and prosecute them accordingly.

          If you're that worried about abuses of the law, then let me just point this out to you, thanks to this idiot you now have a potential/real precedent in US law stating that a message and/or image can now be legally deemed to be a "deadly weapon", I'm quite sure *that* won't be abused by anyone for their own ends...FSM no...

        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Friday December 20 2019, @07:43PM

          by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday December 20 2019, @07:43PM (#934779) Journal

          How dare he call trying to kill someone attempted murder!

      • (Score: 2) by Booga1 on Friday December 20 2019, @01:15PM

        by Booga1 (6333) on Friday December 20 2019, @01:15PM (#934622)

        I too knew someone who suffered and eventually died due to grand mal epileptic seizures. Any way, what I'm saying is that not even the staunchest of free speech supporters here have even bothered to play devil's advocate.
        Which, by my perhaps limited view, would indicate how few people think the defendant's free speech claims hold any sort of legitimacy whatsoever. Though, now that I have said this I half expect someone to try.

      • (Score: 1, Redundant) by khallow on Saturday December 21 2019, @07:08AM (1 child)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 21 2019, @07:08AM (#934933) Journal

        In TFA I noticed he'd plead guilty to 'aggravated assault' and the phrase '..attempt to cause physical injury to someone..' was used. Do a search on 'Status epilepticus', as the intent to induce a seizure was clear, as extreme as this may sound, he should have been up on a charge of attempted murder 'Pour encourager les autres'.

        Why should he be charged with attempted murder? Was there intent to murder someone? Do seizures normally result in death? If "no" to both, then the sentence is appropriate.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 22 2019, @01:09PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 22 2019, @01:09PM (#935171)
          FTFA:

          In the hours following his tweet to Eichenwald, Rivello sent more private messages to other users, according to court records.

          “I hope this sends him into a seizure,” he wrote in one.

          “Let’s see if he dies,” he wrote in another.

          I do believe that there might be a reasonable case for attempted murder given those kinds of statements that asshole made. The possibility of death from epileptic seizures is not trivial, as he was well aware. That kinda tells you why Rivello's counsel seems to be advising him to plead guilty to aggravated assault.

    • (Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday December 20 2019, @01:05PM (1 child)

      by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Friday December 20 2019, @01:05PM (#934621) Journal

      I find it quite telling that not a single comment has been posted in support of Rivello's actions here.

      Evil is what Evil does.
      In this case, the evil is hiding just in evil intent. Any kind of intentional, dangerous, life endangering attack on completely defenseless is punishable by death, in my value system.

      --
      Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
      • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday December 20 2019, @05:14PM

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday December 20 2019, @05:14PM (#934704) Journal

        Yes, but it's not clear how evil his intent was. And it will be a lot easier to get a conviction for aggravated assault than for attempted murder. Also, he's expected to plead guilty to aggravated assault, but I rather doubt he would plead guilty to attempted murder.

        I doubt that it was an attempt at murder, though that might have been the result. It fairly clearly was assault with a (potentially) deadly weapon. So aggravated assault sounds about right.

        --
        Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    • (Score: 1, Troll) by wisnoskij on Friday December 20 2019, @01:21PM (2 children)

      by wisnoskij (5149) <reversethis-{moc ... ksonsiwnohtanoj}> on Friday December 20 2019, @01:21PM (#934623)

      I remember this event from back when it happened. I was always obvious that Eichenwald was lying, as the gif as upfront and obvious to its intention to flash about pre-animation.

      I do not see how it could be called free speech. But it also was not any sort of attack or battery.

      The judge just awarded the settlement to Eichenwald, because because he is a fellow jew.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @01:55PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @01:55PM (#934631)

        Eichenwald's wife called emergency services when he had his seizure, and there are medical records of what happened, so that isn't in doubt. Epileptic seizures leave physical signs in the victim's body that are evident to the treating medical personnel, and those findings can be entered as evidence in a court of law. Several other tweets that Rivello made clearly established his intent to cause Eichenwald to have an epileptic seizure by sending the malicious image. This was probably why Rivello's lawyers are advising him to enter a guilty plea, as his mens rea and actus reus are clearly established, and he'd be looking at a near-certain conviction. I'd have thought that Twitter and the maker of whatever browser that Eichenwald was using at the time are also equally at fault tough. The law already requires theatres, TV shows, and video games to display a warning when they show a feature that they may cause epileptic seizures in susceptible individuals, so by allowing animations like those to play automatically, the browser maker and Twitter are also culpable of negligence.

        • (Score: 3, Funny) by barbara hudson on Friday December 20 2019, @05:24PM

          by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Friday December 20 2019, @05:24PM (#934712) Journal
          "But if you ban animated gifs only assholes will have ... uh, right, nothing changes "

          Animated gifs and videos and audio that auto play need to die.

          --
          SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
  • (Score: 3, Disagree) by Freeman on Friday December 20 2019, @04:06PM (3 children)

    by Freeman (732) on Friday December 20 2019, @04:06PM (#934674) Journal

    JK only works in chats where you're not causing actionable harm.

    Freebie tip of the day:
    Insulting someone / saying something inflammatory / mouthing off, just because. Then following that up with JK (Just Kidding). Doesn't make it okay. Also, kind of applicable here: https://xkcd.com/1357/ [xkcd.com]

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday December 20 2019, @05:27PM (2 children)

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday December 20 2019, @05:27PM (#934713) Homepage

      The problem with that is that the words "bullshit" and "asshole" had more unambiguous meanings, but then extended to "everything I don't agree with" and "everybody who doesn't agree with me."

      And that's a sword that cuts both ways -- ask Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James, J.K. Rowling, and many others who have not only ruined their celebrity status and livelihoods, but in the cases of Kaepernick and James are costing them the livelihoods of their leaguemates (many of whom didn't agree or didn't care) in the form of plummeting ticket sales and other boycotts.

      "Politically correct" leftists eating each other alive -- and it's a beautiful thing!

      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday December 20 2019, @07:46PM (1 child)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday December 20 2019, @07:46PM (#934782) Journal

        Haha, yeah, the chick who invented Harry Potter is totally struggling!

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @07:51PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @07:51PM (#934784)

          Just like the leader of the free world is struggling from 'peachment.

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