Prolific tweeter and journalist Kurt Eichenwald says he has identified the person who he claims tweeted a GIF at him that caused him to have a seizure.



Seizure by gif–

Vocativ reported

Last December, Eichenwald, whose epilepsy is widely known, was sent a GIF of flashing lights with the words “you deserve a seizure” from an account called “@jew_goldstein.” Eichenwald’s account responded to the tweet with a message from someone claiming to be Eichenwald’s wife explaining that the GIF had, indeed, caused Eichenwald to have a seizure.

Eichenwald, a senior writer for Newsweek and contributing editor for Vanity Fair, then tweeted for his 240,000 Twitter followers to see that he intends to make good on a promise that there would be severe consequences for the tweeter, as well as the other trolls who continued to send him seizure GIFs. He pressed charges against @jew_goldstein and appeared to be in the beginning stages of filing a civil suit against him, which started with asking a judge to compel Twitter to release any identifying information about the anonymous troll (“Jew Goldstein,” it seems, is not his real name).

Legal experts said that Eichenwald probably had a criminal case against the troll, but weren’t sure if he could do much with a civil suit other than find out his identity. Keith Lee, a lawyer who has written about this for his legal blog, Associate’s Mind, told Vocativ at the time that he was skeptical that Eichenwald could ask for much by way of damages. He wondered if Eichenwald was just using pre-trial motions to find out the troll’s real name and then publicly embarrass him with no real intention of suing him.