It is payback time: Fashion magazine editor sues Twitter troll for giving him a seizure

Social media platform provides its users' information and keeps them updated with the latest trends, news, events, and gossip of our loved ones as well as celebrities.

On the contrary, the platform is also filled with hateful trolls who bully people to such an extent that it becomes life-threatening.

Recently,  a 16-year Malaysian girl took her life after taking a poll on her social media account asking if she should commit suicide with 70% of respondents replying ‘yes’.

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Another case of online trolling is by a Twitter user who goes by the name @jew_goldstien who tweeted a GIF at an epileptic Kurt Eichenwald, writer at Vanity Fair and Newsweek.

The tweet said, " you deserve a seizure for your post".

Soon after that, Eichenwald’s wife posted from his account stating that the auto-playing animation triggered her husband to have a seizure and she has called the police to report the assault caused by the user.

 

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

 

In a series of tweets sent out after the event, the editor announced that he's taking a Twitter break to file a case against @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...

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016

 

...it worked. 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...

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016

...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

...identity of the individual who engaged in this cross-state assault. At this point, the police are attempting to determine if this is...

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 16, 2016

...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

Keith Lee, a lawyer based out of Birmingham, Alabama posted an analysis on his blog examining the legal aspect of this assault and the possible consequences.

"There is no reason to think that someone cannot be held liable for assault delivered electronically across great distances," stated Lee.

The editor sent out a series of tweets in which he also announced that he will be taking a break from Twitter and
In a series of tweets sent out after the event, the editor announced that he's taking a Twitter break to file a case against @jew_goldstein.

Furthermore, Twitter also announced that it will no longer animate PNG files, recently trolls hacked the Epilepsy Foundation’s handle and hashtags to send out seizure-triggering images to epileptic and photosensitive individuals.

 

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

— Twitter Engineering (@TwitterEng) December 23, 2019

The account @jew_goldstein has been suspended by Twitter as it violated the rules however since everything claimed by Eichenwald is speculative in nature we need to wait and see what the updates are on the litigation.

This article originally published on Engadget.