Twitter trolls hijack Epilepsy Foundation theme tags and flash pictures

In 2016, a troll deliberately posted news about writer Kurt Achewald on Twitter, causing a seizure. Unfortunately, it effectively shows how social media can be weaponized and used to cause personal injury. Now, the Epilepsy Foundation has revealed that it has suffered a series of similar attacks on the platform.

The organization has filed formal criminal proceedings. The group said the attackers deliberately mentioned the organization and used its tags in tweets with flashing or frequently flashing images. To make matters worse, it happened during National Epilepsy Awareness month in November, when more people with epilepsy may be monitoring their diet.

Jacqueline, chief medical and innovation officer of the Epilepsy Foundation and a doctor of forensic medicine, said there are not many people with photosensitive epilepsy, but such seizures can have a serious impact. "many people don't realize they are photosensitive until they have a seizure," the doctor said. " Alison Nicole, the group's director of legal advocacy, also explained the seriousness of the attack. He thinks Twitter is one of the largest virtual places where people can gather online.

"these attacks are equivalent to providing support for patients with seizures and seizures in order to induce seizures and cause great harm to participants," Nicole said. "in fact, these attacks took place during the National Epilepsy Awareness month, which only highlights their reprehensible nature."

Tell CNET that this will make the platform more secure and the site can prevent the media from automatically playing the user's timeline. The company also promised to use permanently banned accounts "specifically to cause offline harm". The spokesman added: "We are exploring other options to protect people on Twitter from such abuse."