A Newsweek writer with epilepsy is pursuing civil and criminal charges against a Twitter user he claims sent a flashing-strobe-light image — with the words, “You deserve a seizure for your posts” — that caused him to have convulsions.
Kurt Eichenwald, a frequent critic of President-elect Donald Trump, said he received the tweet last week after a heated appearance on Fox News with Tucker Carlson — the second time a user sent him a seizure-inducing message on the platform.
He vowed to pursue charges against the user just before a Dallas County judge issued an order on Monday allowing Eichenwald’s attorney to issue subpoenas to Twitter to reveal the user’s identity, Newsweek reported.
“This is not going to happen again,” Eichenwald tweeted on Tuesday. “My wife is terrified. I am … disgusted.”
Eichenwald, whose form of epilepsy can be triggered by flashing, strobe-like lights, then promised to solely tweet in the next few days copies of legal documents and police reports in an effort to identify the user — who uses the handle @jew_goldstein — allegedly behind the “cross-state assault.” He also warned other critics not to try target him, saying “online anonymity doesn’t protect criminals.”
Newsweek reported that Twitter agreed to the judge’s order, indicating that the company might not contest any subpoenas issued in the case. A spokesperson for Twitter declined to comment on the matter Thursday, citing policy not to comment on individual accounts or investigations.
Twitter also agreed to “expedited relief,” meaning it could move quicker than the typical two-week period between the issuance of a subpoena for potential witnesses and signing by a judge. The order also required Twitter to preserve all records related to the user, Newsweek reports.
Timothy Perkins, an attorney representing Eichenwald, has also filed a criminal assault complaint with the Dallas Police Department. An assault complaint will also be filed in the same jurisdiction as the user who tweeted the strobe-light image once their identity is revealed.
“This individual did something clearly knowing his actions could injure me, and he succeeded,” Eichenwald told Newsweek.
Eichenwald said last week’s tweet was the second time a self-identifying Trump supporter sent such a message to him. The first incident, back in October after a story on how Trump’s foreign business ties could impact national security, did not cause him to have a seizure, possibly because he dropped the iPad he used to read the message.
Newsweek notes that online trolls have used strobe images to try to cause seizures among epileptics for nearly a decade. In 2008, hackers targeted the website for the Epilepsy Foundation and posted images with strobe lights, causing several people to have severe migraines or other reactions before they were removed.
Eichenwald, in a tweet following his appearance on Fox News last week with Carlson, claimed that viewers of the network were “going after [his] kids” because of his confrontation with the host over Eichenwald’s claim in a now-deleted tweet that Trump was institutionalized in a mental hospital for a nervous breakdown in 1990.
At the end of a contentious 9-minute interview, during which Tucker repeatedly asked Eichenwald if he could prove that claim, the host said he would have “real concerns” if he was Eichenwald’s editor.
“I am not calling anyone a liar, but I am saying I’m concerned about your behavior on this show tonight,” Tucker said.
Eichenwald, meanwhile, said he fully intends to pursue the issue until whoever sent that tweet causing him to have a seizure is arrested for assault.
“Somehow, we have descended as a nation to the point that people think it’s justified to cause severe harm to someone simply because of politics or because they believe it’s funny,’’ Eichenwald told Newsweek. “I have decided to pursue this case so that those online who believe they can do whatever they want, even inflict serious medical damage on others, under the cloak of anonymity will learn that they are not beyond the reach of the law.”