The FBI has arrested a man in connection with sending journalist Kurt Eichenwald a tweet intended to induce a seizure.
He currently faces federal charges & is expected to also be indicted by the Dallas District Attorney on different charges in next few days.
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) March 17, 2017
Kurt, who has been open about being epileptic, received a tweet containing a GIF meant to cause a seizure.
Back in December, after Kurt appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight, a tweeter named @jew_goldstein tweeted a strobing GIF with the message “YOU DESERVE A SEIZURE FOR YOUR POSTS!”
Shortly after, a tweet presumed to be from his wife came from Kurt’s account:
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
Kurt pursued legal action against the Twitter user and later posted the legal papers filed in a Texas court of law seeking the information of the user from Twitter.
He eventually withdrew the motion when he found out the user’s identity through other means.
via The Verge:
The suspect, John Rayne Rivello, 29, of Salisbury, Maryland allegedly sent a message to Eichenwald saying, “You deserve a seizure for your post.” That message included the strobe. After pursuing a search warrant, police say they found Twitter direct messages in which Rivello discussed Eichenwald and said he hoped his message would send him into a seizure and that he was waiting to see if the writer dies. He additionally had a screenshot of a Wikipedia page for Eichenwald in which he altered it to say that the victim died on December 16, 2016 (the day after he sent the strobe).
Who knew Twitter could be so deadly?
