Evil Trump supporter tweets a strobe at Kurt Eichenwald

[septimus]

@Starving_Artist

Eichenwald is a lying, dishonest prick and in a more moral era would be an embarrassment to his publishers. … He was phony, dishonest and dissembling the whole way through.

Plus so far as I know there’s no reason for him to stay off Twitter. The strobe (whose posting I don’t agree with) was in the form of a GIF, which you have to click to get it to animate. It’s not like simply opening the site is going to suddenly inundate you with flashing strobe lights. Perhaps if he weren’t such a lying, obfuscating and obnoxious twit he wouldn’t inspire people to do things like that to him.

Three points.

1. You don’t like Eichenwald. (I wonder if there’s something about the very surname you find detestable.)
2. You “don’t agree” with the strobe, but this disclaimer merits mention only within parentheses. BYW, “don’t agree” is not a synonym of “condemn.”
3. You don’t know what an animated gif is.

Pro-tip: If you want to pretend that you’re not delighted to see Eichenwald persecuted, string a lot of adjectives and phrases together: “reprehensible”, “worse than the offense that it protests”, “he has the right to free speech.” You might be smart enough to know this already, so I can only assume there’s some Starving Artist Fan Club and you don’t want them to think you’re going soft.

@Starving_Artist

I clearly stated that I didn’t agree with the posting of the strobe light.

If “clearly stated” includes a short noun phrase embedded in parentheses. You spend far more words claiming that you clearly stated it than in actually stating it clearly. :rolleyes:

@Starving_Artist

Only stupid people think that.

@Starving_Artist

Stupid is as stupid does, and it’s just as stupid to go walking down a dark alley with money hanging out of your pockets, or if you’re a woman to throw caution to the wind and get passing out drunk with no thought as to the possible consequences, as it is to climb into a tiger pen at the zoo. The argument against victim blaming is well-intentioned and it serves a worthwhile purpose…up to a point. But taken to such an extreme that it completely absolves the victim of any and all responsibility for their own behavior is not only irresponsible and ridiculous, but dangerous as well.

Not a fan of the First Amendment I see. (I’ve not seen you in the gun threads but would bet money the Second Amendment gives you wet dreams. )

@Starving_Artist

I stand corrected then. Every one I’ve ever seen had to be clicked on first though.

Cite? I’ve wanted to find a way to stop an animated gif from playing before clicked, but don’t know how. Sure your click didn’t replace a non-animated image with an animated one?

@Starving_Artist

And while we’re on the subject of this manipulative, lying, dishonest faux-journalist, … I’m disinclined to take that guy’s word at face value on anything.

You sure don’t like Eichenwald. I bet you’re more comfortable with nice Teutonic names like Drumpf or Himmler.

[wonky]

@Locrian

I’m glad they caught him. I was unaware that over 40 other people did the same thing to the man since the news of the first strobe message was reported on!

I’m torn between hoping people get the message and stop sending these tweets, and hoping people continue sending the tweets and more people get arrested.

[Morgyn]

Someone was doing it just this weekend. Three separate ones, plus a boast or two that he had done so. I reported the strobing GIFs, although I’m sure Eichenwald is being careful of his settings so that they don’t automatically play when scrolled past.

Some people are just jerks.

[wonky]

@Morgyn

Someone was doing it just this weekend. Three separate ones, plus a boast or two that he had done so. I reported the strobing GIFs, although I’m sure Eichenwald is being careful of his settings so that they don’t automatically play when scrolled past.

Some people are just jerks.

This isn’t jerkish behavior. This is pathological violent behavior, hidden in a bloodless medium.

[Czarcasm]

@Starving_Artist

Thanks.

Still not an unconditional condemnation of the act, though. Care to try again?

[Count_Blucher]

@jsgoddess

This isn’t jerkish behavior. This is pathological violent behavior, hidden in a bloodless medium.

The laws of Criminal Justice lag behind once again.

[Guinastasia]

@jsgoddess

I’m torn between hoping people get the message and stop sending these tweets, and hoping people continue sending the tweets and more people get arrested.

As one who gets seizures, I have to say, that’s a messed up idea.

[wonky]

@Guinastasia

As one who gets seizures, I have to say, that’s a messed up idea.

He’s not opening them. He’s sending them to the FBI.

[Czarcasm]

@jsgoddess

He’s not opening them. He’s sending them to the FBI.

As a long-time user of Topiramate, I also think it’s a mess-up idea. Anyone willing to do something this dangerous isn’t above spoofing a loved one’s/friend’s/family member’s email address.

[wonky]

@Czarcasm

As a long-time user of Topiramate, I also think it’s a mess-up idea. Anyone willing to do something this dangerous isn’t above spoofing a loved one’s/friend’s/family member’s email address.

True. In an ideal world, this would simply draw them all out without risking anyone. Well, I guess in an ideal world, such people wouldn’t exist. Nevermind!

[BigT]

@Czarcasm

As a long-time user of Topiramate, I also think it’s a mess-up idea. Anyone willing to do something this dangerous isn’t above spoofing a loved one’s/friend’s/family member’s email address.

Spoofed email addresses aren’t that hard to detect, though. Particularly so if you’re trying to spoof the major email providers, which all have protections in place.

It would make a lot more sense just to create a disposable email account, and to use an anonymizing proxy through the dark web, while using free Wi-fi.

I was actually happy that the main Twitter user wasn’t smart enough to do this. It’s why trying to prosecute death threats online is so hard–it’s really easy to make yourself effectively entirely anonymous.

[Rick_Kitchen]

Eichenwald was busy on Twitter last night with a raft of right wing trolls that were posting obnoxious lies about him.

[JohnT]

… and the person charged with the crime just had felony assault and hate crime charges added to the list.

Kurt Eichenwald

[Bricker]

@septimus

Cite? I’ve wanted to find a way to stop an animated gif from playing before clicked, but don’t know how.

If you’re using Chrome, may I recommend the Animation Policy plugin?

It permits you to set a rule that makes animated gifs run only once, or disables animation completely.

There is a native setting in Firefox to do the same thing:

about:config

in the URL bar and then search for

image.animation. You'll see a setting called 

image.animation_mode

; set it to "off."

Finally in IE, navigate to Internet Properties / Advanced / Multimedia and uncheck Play Animations in Webpages, then (since it's Windows) restart your entire system.

[JohnT]

Eichenwald posts an update:

Kurt Eichenwald

“1.Without warning, I fell today and hurt my arm. Dizzy, no one was around to help me get back up. It happened because I wrote things about Trump that a supporter didn’t like, so 13 months ago, he tried to kill me. Knowing I have epilepsy, knowing strobes can set off seizures…2.…he tweeted one at me. It contained the words “You deserve a seizure for your posts.” It was sent by John Rivello, who identified himself with the online code for anti-Semites of three brackets, calling himself (((Ari Goldstein))) with the twitter handle @jew_goldstein. The…”

He continues for 11 tweets in total.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

That’s pretty gut-wrenching stuff.

[Measure_for_Measure]

The Lawfare cybercrime blog has a decent May 2017 writeup of the case:

Cybercrime Roundup: Using Twitter as a Weapon, Copyright Trolling Porn, and...

The FBI appears to have spent some resources tracking the accused down. The state of Texas, where the victim lives, added aggravated assault and hate crime charges.

There is an online fundraising campaign for the accused, which has garnered support in the low 5 figures, from 448 mostly anonymous contributors. Most do so without comment; some do so with anti-Semitic commentary or obtuse claims that sending out a tweet is no big deal.

I used to follow Eichenwald on twitter; I no longer do. Not a fan. But I consider the alleged criminal behavior to be assault and battery and believe it should be punished as such, with other charges added as the law allows.