PerspectiveSeizure-Triggering Attack Is Stark Example of How Social Media Can Be Weaponized

Followers of the Epilepsy Foundation’s Twitter handle were targeted last month with posts containing strobe light GIFs and videos which could have caused seizures for people with epilepsy, the foundation announced Monday.

Shannon Vavra writes in Cyberscoop that the videos were sent during National Epilepsy Awareness Month, “a period of time when, according to the foundation, the largest number of people with epilepsy were likely to be keeping tabs on the account. For about 3 percent of people with epilepsy, exposure to flashing lights at certain intensities or certain visual patterns can trigger seizures.”

“These attacks are no different than a person carrying a strobe light into a convention of people with epilepsy and seizures, with the intention of inducing seizures and thereby causing significant harm to the participants,” said Allison Nichol, director of legal advocacy for the Epilepsy Foundation, in a release. “The fact that these attacks came during National Epilepsy Awareness Month only highlights their reprehensible nature.”

Vavra writes:

While this kind of activity may not bear the hallmarks of a cyberattack, which can trick users into clicking malicious links or knock a website offline by flooding it with junk traffic, this attack shows that platforms can have even their normal functions weaponized in order to cause physical harm.

Twitter says it gives users the option of preventing media from autoplaying in their timelines, as well as preventing any GIFs from appearing when someone searches for “seizure” in GIF search.