RantCrush Top 5: March 22, 2017

Federal charges were just filed against a man who sent a GIF to journalist Kurt Eichenwald that caused a serious epileptic seizure. Eichenwald has been open about his epilepsy and last December, someone sent him a strobe GIF with the message “you deserve a seizure for your posts.”

Whether or not the sender actually intended for Eichenwald to suffer a seizure, he did, and his wife found him on the floor. She called 911 and responded to the tweet on his phone saying, “@jew_goldstein This is his wife, you caused a seizure. I have your information and have called the police to report the assault.” Police tracked down the man behind the Twitter account, John Rivello. Now it may be up to the court to decide whether a tweet can actually be considered a deadly weapon. It’s a tricky question, as attack-by-tweet is a new phenomenon and Rivello could claim that his tweets are free speech.

John Rivello indicted for intentionally tweeting GIF to journalist @kurteichenwald to provoke epileptic seizure https://t.co/0NAh8XvnIp pic.twitter.com/xg4lnhlhqS

— Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) March 22, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.