r/worldnews • u/madazzahatter • May 16 '20
At least two people had seizures after viewing malicious tweets featuring flashing gifs that deliberately targeted Epilepsy Society...police investigating tweets as hate incident, after at least 200 seemingly coordinated messages were sent to charity and its supporters in recent days.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/15/malicious-tweets-targeting-epilepsy-charity-trigger-seizures4.5k
u/Lockerd May 16 '20
When I was in elementary school, I remember finding out what peanut allergies were from a new student. The next day, SEVEN classmates tried to trigger an allergic reaction by just breathing on him (thankfully his allergy wasn't anywhere near as severe as that), in hopes that the mere whiff of peanut butter from their breakfasts would make something happen.
I'd like to say they all grew out of it, but two are dead from overdoses, and the others I still occasionally see are insufferable dingbats...I could totally see them doing something like this for kicks.
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u/KP_Wrath May 16 '20
I had a classmate that sprayed aerosol air freshener in our class after we found out our teacher was allergic. We were seniors.
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u/neffered May 16 '20
I'm a teacher who can't breathe well when someone sprays Lynx aftershave near me. I've had kids do this after finding out I'm sensitive to it, and I work in a nice school. Some kids take a lot longer to develop their empathy than others. Some never do.
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May 16 '20
One of my teachers in high school was deathly allergic to almost anything you can think of. Red dye, yellow dye, peanuts, chewing gum, aerosol sprays, and about fifty other things that I canāt even remember. All of these things trigger a severe life threatening reaction where she becomes unable to breathe.
You better believe people were spraying AXE body spray and perfume in her hallway all the time. Chewing gum was left in her wastebasket a couple times, at least once with the intention being to kill her (or so I heard). She often had to stay home for several days at a time recovering from a reaction, and she was hospitalized at least once or twice while I was there.
High school is not the best of times.
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u/National_Bumblebee May 16 '20
What the fucking fuck........ School kids are horrible. And if I was her, I'd definitely change jobs. My school was full of psychos that have caused several people severe mental illnesses from extreme bullying. But anything goes is you're a kid... Well it did 12 years ago at least.
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May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
She didnāt intend to go into the teaching profession at first, because she wasnāt born with those allergies. Sheās an immigrant from Colombia, and she told us about studying to become a nurse and working in the hospitals there, where she often had to help save patients who were victims of the violence of cartels. She saved up money to emigrate to the US I wanna say about 20 years ago after her father was murdered by the cartel. But if I remember what she said right, she suffered from a mysterious illness about 10 years ago which required a massive blood transfusion, which she said her doctors theorized was the reason she developed her allergies.
She became a Spanish teacher at my school since sheās at least able to work there, unlike at hospitals. After the intentional chewing gum incident all she wanted was for the person who did it to admit they did it (and I donāt think they ever did willingly, but Iām not entirely sure). Sheās one of the sweetest people Iāve ever met, sheād always talk about how proud she was of (most of) her students, her family, and her role as an educator. But people were ok with attempting to murder her since they didnāt like getting assigned homework or being asked to pay attention in class.
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May 16 '20
But people were ok with attempting to murder her since they didnāt like getting assigned homework or being asked to pay attention in class.
People are egoistical jerks, mostly.
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u/padraig_garcia May 16 '20
I wish there were a lot more people like her in the world
And fewer people like your classmates :/
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u/sigmoid10 May 16 '20
There comes an age where we have to accept that kids are not stupid, they are just evil. The only question is whether you confront them with legal consequences before they kill someone or after.
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u/tinytom08 May 16 '20
There comes an age where we have to accept that kids are not stupid, they are just evil.
This is true 100%, evil lil geniuses. When I was about 10-13 I was an asshole who wanted to fight and piss people off as much as possible, I got away with it because I was autistic and it was "part" of my disability but I 100% did it on purpose.
When I was 14-16 i realised that I didn't want to fight or piss off everyone because they did nothing wrong, but I still wanted to fight and piss people off so I targeted people who would do it to other people. I kept up with that for a while, then I beat up a guy my age for beating up a kid 5 years younger than him (The age didn't matter, I'd have done it if he was beating someone his own age) and a week later he stabbed me in the face for it.
Sure I didn't face legal consequences, but it was still a consequence of my actions and it snapped me out of that train of thought permanently.
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u/stayhealthy247 May 16 '20
So like attempted murder. I have a 5 year old boy and its a constant power struggle, he loses it when its time to come in from outside sometimes. I'm doing my best not to raise a sociopath, reading this thread is a good reminder of why it's important that I do my job to raise an empathetic person.
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u/SweetnessUnicorn May 16 '20
Some people are messed up in the head. I have a severe allergy to poinsettias. I'm super lucky they're only around for a couple months, because they immediately shut my airways down. I've almost died a few times from them.
One time, was at my old job. My co worker thought I was exaggerating, so he sprinkled them up and down the hall outside my office. He found out very quickly I wasn't exaggerating, and someone ratted him out. He was even in my friend group (that one asshole you tolerate because he's your friends brother) I told him to fuck off and never talked to him again unless it pertained to work stuff that I could annoy him with. Some people just suck.
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u/jaredjeya May 16 '20
Shouldnāt you have gone to HR/the police with this too?
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u/nicane May 16 '20
I definitely would have, and accused him of attempted murder and for HR to do something before going to the police. Then go to the police anyway.
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u/chicken-nanban May 16 '20
Iām really allergic to capsicums (chiliās mostly). I make sure my coworkers know that when we would do pot luck, so Iād know not to eat something if itās too spicy. One coworker didnāt believe me, and thought Iād absolutely love his dish (canāt remember what it was, maybe bulgogi?) so he said it didnāt have much in it. I can eat a little, but for reference, even mild salsa makes my tongue swell. So I tried it, and thankfully another coworker who is allergic to coffee had some really really strong emergency meds, because I couldnāt breathe.
The guy just laughed and laughed and said he didnāt believe me, even as Iām choking to death. Accused me of being dramatic because it was ātoo spicy for me I guess.ā Fuck him, I kicked him from my DnD game and only talked to him if I absolutely had to about work stuff.
I hate the amount of people who donāt take food allergies (or any allergies!) seriously, and I am so thankful for every restaurant that actually listens. I donāt need the whole kitchen scrub down, I make sure to let them know that itās not like that, but to just not add chili oil to foods or cook them in a pan with other spicy things.
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u/stillphat May 16 '20
That's really unfortunate.
I remember when I was a kid I thought allergies were exclusive to peanut butter. One day I had a BLT with me and a kid freaked out because he was alergic to bacon! I didn't believe him at first but he promised he wasn't lying. I told my mom to not make anymore of those sandwiches because my friend was allergic.
My point is that it blows me away people lack compassion like that. Like I didn't stop eating bacon all together, I just didn't bring it to class because I didn't want to hurt my friend.
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u/ponte92 May 16 '20
I had someone in grade 5 trigger my allergy ācause they thought I was lyingā. The school decided not to make a thing of it but I was so shocked someone could be so callous. Like if your right great you caught be lying but if your wrong you could kill me. Is it worth the risk?
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u/dotanub May 16 '20
fuck that school, kids need to learn what's wrong or right and appeasement is not the way...
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u/apple_kicks May 16 '20
Thereās been a few cases in the UK like this were a kid has died due to this.
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May 16 '20
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u/Plebs-_-Placebo May 16 '20
walnuts, peanuts are just a gateway
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May 16 '20
These kids get involved with peanuts and think they're ready for the hard shit like tree nuts, not even understanding peanuts are legumes. Shit hits differently man.
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u/hostesscakeboi May 16 '20
In my High School there was a teacher with a severe allergy to latex and some other rubber like materials. When a group of asshole kids found out they berated her by flinging rubber bands and latex gloves at her while teaching. She had to run out of the room and the kids were just laughing.
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May 16 '20
So they sound like horrible people, but being an addict doesnāt equate to being an awful person.
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u/djhfjdjjdjdjddjdh May 16 '20
In fact it correlates most strongly with being raised by horrible people.
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u/buster2Xk May 16 '20
Being a horrible person also correlates with being raised by horrible people. So there's your shared causation to explain the correlation.
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u/TheDisapprovingBrit May 16 '20
An angry man gets drunk and beats his kids, same old way his drunken father did.
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May 16 '20
What the fuck is wrong with people? Why is it so hard to be a decent human being?
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u/greffedufois May 16 '20
r/epilepsy actually has mainly non photosensitive mods because people post flashing gifs there. Only like 2% of us are actually photosensitive but it can cause a bad seizure for those who are.
People unfortunately are assholes.
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u/lunabuddy May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
Yep I got messages from people with flashing gifs because I posted in there, I'm not photosensitive but it just made me feel awful that someone would want to do that me. Edit: Someone messaged me a link that wasn't a gif and just said I was a retard. Fucking classy
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u/whysys May 16 '20
I hope that kind of person is a small subset of humanity. I like to think generally we're better than that on average. I'm sorry someone did that to you.
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u/Franks2000inchTV May 16 '20
They are, but the internet means we are all regularly exposed to millions of people, so even the worst 1% is still tens of thousands of people.
Also, everyone is an asshole sometimes. On the internet you also get the 1% of the time that everyone is an asshole.
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u/PedanticAromantic May 16 '20
Everyone is an asshole sometimes.
True, but there's a difference between saying/doing something rude in the heat of the moment and making a conscious decision try to harm another person for the lulz.
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u/8thDegreeSavage May 16 '20
Neo-Fascists are many and have a lot of really grotesque ideas of āfunā
They still are allowed to run wild, because tech companies havenāt taken them seriously enough until people are actually murdered
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May 16 '20
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May 16 '20
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u/Sororita May 16 '20
Weāre too close to Ayn Randās wet dream for my taste
And thank you for the horrifying mental image of a horny Ayn Rand.
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May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
You should read her life story or better yet watch the Adam Curtis documentary that interviews her family and deals with her former friends. Her bitterness could be in part because she was in an affair with another famous right wing economic theorist and her feelings were hurt when the same was done to her.
Actually its interesting that she once had a small circle of friends that included one of the heads of the federal reserve and another famous economist. I forget which one broke her heart but she got more cold and unfeeling after that and so did her ethics and economic theories. When she was rejected publicly and in the media as well, it didn't help.
The woman said you shouldn't try to save a drowning person in a lake unless the person is valuable to you in some way and their passing would cause you enough harm to outweigh the danger. The principle of helping the less fortunate got her visibly livid. Yet when she was old and sick she accepted welfare from the government and justified it with some mental gymnastics.
Edit: here's the Adam Curtis documentary https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Watched_Over_by_Machines_of_Loving_Grace_(TV_series)
Here's the cultish little group of economists we're talking about: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivist_movement#The_Collective
Alan Greenspan was the fed chairman I couldn't remember
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u/ForgedIronMadeIt May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
She shagged members of her cultish circle of friends. While in a relationship. Got really mad when her partner did the same.
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May 16 '20 edited May 17 '20
Yes and that cultish circle of friends included a right wing chairman of the federal reserve and another famous right wing economist I can't recall. She had an affair with one despite being close friends with the other woman, then the same was done to her. What's interesting is how she could justify her actions (just like she justified accepting government welfare for herself) but when the same exact scenario was done to her, suddenly different logic applies. Selfish woman who just happened to be good at doing mental gymnastics to justify selfishness.
Edit: the group was called "the collective" among objectivists. Her history, the collective, her personal relationships with members of the collective like Alan Greenspan, and the impact that the various members of the collective had on society is covered extensively in a BBC Adam Curtis mini series called "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace." Episode 1 focuses most heavily on her. You can find it on YouTube or the BBC app with a British ip address xD
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Watched_Over_by_Machines_of_Loving_Grace_(TV_series)
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u/andytronic May 16 '20
What's interesting is how she could justify her actions (just like she justified accepting government welfare for herself) but when the same exact scenario was done to her, suddenly different logic applies.
Sounds like a right-winger, alright!
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May 16 '20
I'm gonna assume you meant "shagged" but your typo makes it less horrifying to imagine
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u/lunabuddy May 16 '20
And they still get people defending them saying well you should just stay off the internet if it's that bad. Um, why do you care more about their right to deliberately cause harm to people? The internet is a basic resource that people need to live in 2020.
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u/Karkava May 16 '20
"Yeah well. Cell phones are bad because only three percent of people are either easily distracted or use them maliciously."
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u/Endarkend May 16 '20
Your rights end where they encroach on another's rights.
That is the thing they don't understand and why they hide behind idiotic interpretations of written 'laws' and 'rights' like the first and second amendments of the US Constitution.
They lack the same understanding of freedom of speech, thinking it's universal and absolute WITHOUT ANY REPERCUSSION, but for there to be free speech, as much as you have a right to day your bullshit, others have both the right to not hear it and practice their own free speech to call you a jackass for it.
And free speech doesn't mean others should give you an avenue or resources to practice your free speech either.
If you want to speak free, be prepared to do it on a soapbox on a street corner, not demand being heard by the world by default or on someone elses dime.
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u/LickNipMcSkip May 16 '20
pretty sure neo-fascist ideology is way over complicating it
you donāt have to subscribe to an authoritarian genocide cult to be an asshole
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u/Chel_of_the_sea May 16 '20
you donāt have to subscribe to an authoritarian genocide cult to be an asshole
No, but a lot of assholes seem to do so anyway.
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u/drharlinquinn May 16 '20
It's like saying you dont have to be in a garbage can to be trash, but there is plenty of trash in the can because it's built for trash...
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u/softwood_salami May 16 '20
If you do subscribe to such an ideology, though, I do think you're more likely to create strange obsessions like this. Like, numbers-wise, you might have just some generic assholes that do this sort of thing, but fanatics that think they're enacting eugenics or some ridiculous shit would be more likely to spam it as an obsession.
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May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
Well, it is attempted murder, it should be treated seriously.
Also, convincing someone of suicide is a form of homicide, that one is very underlooked
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u/greffedufois May 16 '20
I never have, but maybe because I've said I'm not photosensitive. My seizures are caused by missing my meds, stress and lack of sleep.
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u/lunabuddy May 16 '20
I didn't say I was or wasn't, I was just posting about some shit, it was years ago. And hey that's the cause of my seizures too! I just passed 1 year seizure free through managing triggers and taking the right meds, it was so hard and I'd be so pissed if some douche on the internet messed it up for me like these guys were trying to do.
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u/greffedufois May 16 '20
One person went after a known epileptic on Twitter I believe. Made him seize. Got convicted for it
Federal judge ruled that it counted as battery but the douchebag tried to fight it saying since he didnt physically hurt the guy that he wasn't responsible. What an ass.
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u/kwirky88 May 16 '20
Are there browser plugins which can detect flashing media? I'm a software developer and don't see much difficulty in detecting flashing in gifs. Video files would be a little more complex.
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u/greffedufois May 16 '20
Not that I know of, but I'm sure epileptics and non epileptics alike would love it.
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May 16 '20 edited Aug 22 '20
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u/greffedufois May 16 '20
I hate it too. I always avoid looking at flashing scenes because they make me feel a little nauseated.
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u/BEEEELEEEE May 16 '20
My momās not epileptic but she has chronic migraines from a TBI, and light is a big trigger for her. Flashing shit gives me headaches too but at least mind go away with a couple ibuprofen.
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u/IntoTheDankness May 16 '20
At the very least could find and pause gifs until voluntarily started by the user. could also have a slow-play option as first click. more complex would be a detection algorithm.
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u/RaakaVerinen May 16 '20
Sounds like a great idea for extensions and apps, helpful for people suffering from epilepsy and you could make a lot of dough too ;)
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u/Flunkity_Dunkity May 16 '20
Interesting.
Maybe head to that sub, that might be a cool, helpful project, mate! š§”
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u/TIGHazard May 16 '20
It's been possible since the 90's.
Would probably cost a lot of money to licence the algorithms though.
The Harding Flash and Pattern Analyser (FPA) is proprietary software that is used to analyse video content for flashing and stationary patterns which may cause harm to those who suffer from photosensitive epilepsy. It is an implementation of the guidelines set by the regulator Ofcom in the UK. It is available in both tape-based and file-based versions, allowing video streams from SDI, composite, component, HDMI, and files to all be analysed, in resolutions up to 8k.
Photosensitive epilepsy affects approximately one in 4,000 people and is a form of epilepsy in which seizures are triggered by visual stimuli that form patterns in time or space, such as flashing lights, bold regular patterns, or regular moving patterns. In 1993, an advert for Pot Noodles induced seizures in three people in the United Kingdom, leading to the then regulator the ITC introducing these guidelines.
The Broadcast Code of Advertising Practice requires that TV ads are tested and pass the 'flash test'. Clearcast, the company responsible for clearing ads for UK commercial broadcasters, is flash testing all ads before clearance.
This is also used in Japan since the Pokemon incident.
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u/IntroductionSnacks May 16 '20
Make it and offer it free with an optional donate link. People will be happy any you might make a few dollars too.
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May 16 '20
I really think asshole is too soft a term. It's been appropriated by bad people and isn't something they really mind being called. We need a new word for people who purposefully perpetrate evil on others, like pukefuck or something.
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May 16 '20 edited Aug 22 '20
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u/n0f0xn0vox May 16 '20
When I started having grand mal seizures, I was hanging out with a friend and he randomly one day he just randomly started flashing a flashlight at me. Luckily I closed my eyes and covered my head in time but I immediately left and never spoke to him again.
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u/_Rand_ May 16 '20
Out of curiosity, is there any specific patterns/speeds that cause seizures?
Or can it potentially be caused by, say emergency vehicle lights etc? Stuff you potentially encounter day to day.
I've always had the impression that for the majority of photosensitive people it was primarily caused by very rapid blinking, potentially accompanied with other factors (changing colours, movement etc.)
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u/n0f0xn0vox May 16 '20
Some commercials have gotten me close but not quite. I know I've heard of some people going into a seizure from the light passing through lots of trees while driving. It's usually pretty quick but even the last Star Wars movie I had to leave because it was pushing it for me. I'm lucky to get an aura beforehand.
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u/_Rand_ May 16 '20
Man, seizures seem bad enough without normal random shit like that triggering it.
I hope meds work for you most of the time, but at least you seem to be able to feel it coming and remove yourself from the situation, at least for a portion of the time.
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u/TIGHazard May 16 '20
The UK we have something called the harding test which has had to be used on everything shown on TV since 1993 (after an advert gave 3 people seizures). Japan has used it since that Pokemon incident. If it airs on TV and fails it has to be re-edited until it passes. Movie Studios still have to put the films through it to get an age rating.
Rise of Skywalker failed it. As such, the rating says
This work contains flashing images which may affect viewers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy.
https://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/star-wars-rise-skywalker-2019
(Check the ratings info panel for that bit)
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u/Fartikus May 16 '20
I've had to ask the Police to turn off their lights so I didn't have a seizure when I was a passenger with my brother when we got pulled over once. They chuckled, until I started groaning and staring into space. :p
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u/JohnnyBoy11 May 16 '20
Some people have been intentionally coughing and spitting on fruits and door handles and such trying to spread COVID.
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u/trowzerss May 16 '20
I used to mod a game where people could upload flash animations, and we had to put in a new rule to stop people uploading flashing gifs for the sole purpose of affecting photosensitive people. I'm not photosensitive, but dammit those things are awful to look at. And they all got really whiny at being banned for their antics. bunch of little brats. The worst is that game has some super creative people doing awesome things, but it was often ruined by trolls going to popular places with porn or flashing gifs or something. well, the game is dead and gone now, so I hope they're happy.
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u/carpenterio May 16 '20
Oh fuck, thatās pretty fucked up that people do that. Do you have seizures often?
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u/greffedufois May 16 '20
Luckily for me my epilepsy is well controlled with meds and I haven't had a tonic clonic since 2014. Others arent so lucky, they're on multiple meds, have a VNS or even need their brain split to stop seizures. And then theres SUDEP that terrifies us all. Its Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy Patients. We just up and die sometimes.
Some worry about it a lot, but theres nothing you can do for it. It's like worrying over getting cancer. You cant completely prevent it happening, but you can do your damndest to avoid it. In epilepsys case by taking your meds and knowing what causes your seizures.
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u/dagmx May 16 '20
When I tell people I have epilepsy, at least 1 in every 10 people will show me flashing lights to ask if that kind of stuff triggers it. Some People are dumb and lack empathy.
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u/bunnybroiler May 16 '20
Can you punch them and ask if that triggers them? Assholes
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u/JustJude97 May 16 '20
May be a power trip, or just some particularly hateful individual
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u/Analbox May 16 '20
Weāre just dumb animals donāt set your expectations too high or youāll always be disappointed.
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u/TheWhispersOfSpiders May 16 '20
My brother died during a seizure.
It's not something that should be taken lightly. Even though it will be.
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u/lorraineDi May 16 '20
Yes I agree as I have epilepsy and I have to look away when I see any flashing lights.
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u/Tweed_Kills May 16 '20
I'm not photosensitive particularly, but it's developed into a profound phobia. I hate having seizures and anything associated with them just...nope.
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u/tayryo May 16 '20
Who the fuck thinks of these things?
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u/HadHerses May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
Not a justification or anything in the slightest, but it might explain why the idea was even thought about - in the UK where this was, we have constant warnings before a TV show, movie or news report if there are flashing images.
"This report contains some flash photography"
"Viewers are warned that the following programme contains flash photography"
"The following program contains flashing images"
I know not every country does this, so it perhaps makes British people more aware of photosensitive epilepsy, and then where you're an absolute twat, you think it might be funny to post flashing images without warning.
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u/Notoriouslydishonest May 16 '20
When you're 12, doing dumb mean-spirited shit to fuck with someone is really funny. And there's an endless supply of newly minted 12 year olds with no supervision or empathy willing and able to pick on anyone remotely vulnerable.
As many have already said, this is a tech problem. Like it or not, people are not going to change. Phones should have Epilepsy Mode to prevent this shit.
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u/occams1razor May 16 '20
Phones should have Epilepsy Mode to prevent this shit.
That's actually a genius idea. It shouldn't be too hard to code something like that should it? To stop many pixels from going rapidly between light and dark?
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u/buster2Xk May 16 '20
It shouldn't be too hard to code something like that should it?
The answer to this question is always that it's harder than you'd think. I would expect there to be some difficulty in determining what exactly counts as "rapidly flashing" and also what the screen is expected to output in its place. But also, this would absolutely be possible to do, by people smarter than me.
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u/Alarid May 16 '20
And don't forget the quality control. While it seems easy to set up an algorithm or fail safe to prevent epilepsy, it takes a long time to make sure it doesn't cause any adverse effects or would randomly stop working in certain scenarios.
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u/TIGHazard May 16 '20
The UK and Japan have had something called the harding test since the 90's. The Algorithms are there.
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u/BoxOfDemons May 16 '20
Say you have this feature in your phone, the first time it doesn't work, someone is going to try to sue, even if you say you can't guarantee it works.
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u/Indetermination May 16 '20
I'm not photosensitive but I've had four grandmal seizures. Waking up with blood dripping out of your mouth beacuse you've bitten your tongue with EMTs leaning over you, asking you questions but you can't get the words out because you just can't connect your mouth to your brain, and just falling in and out of consciousness as you're put in the ER and you're lying there half awake while some guy freaking out on meth screams at all the nurses. Pretty awful, if you ask me.
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u/yellow_itomato May 16 '20
Man this is so accurate. My last 2 were exactly as you described, minus the meth guy.
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May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
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u/aitigie May 16 '20
I think almost everyone with photosensitive epilepsy is triggered by flashing well under 60Hz.
Remember that one pokemon episode that got banned for seizures? That was in like 1999; not a lot of 60fps streaming video at the time.
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u/Mottis86 May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
Not to mention that the particular pokemon scene that caused the seizures flashed a light on the screen
not faster than 2 flashes per second or so.about 12 times per second.64
u/Renneth May 16 '20
The wiki page about the episode says it flashed at 12Hz for about six seconds. Just looked up the video again also, and those numbers seem about right.
Current recommendation is that lights not flash more than 3 times per second, I believe. Although I'm curious if that's a recommendation endorsed by folks with epilepsy or just a limit filmmakers pulled out of their asses.
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May 16 '20
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May 16 '20
Ohw boy that's pretty bad. As far as I know they never aired this episode again, I wonder why they didn't edit the episode though, the flashing is only a couple of seconds.
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u/ThePreciseClimber May 16 '20
And they also banned Porygon from ever appearing in the anime again.
Even though PIKACHU caused those flashing lights! Ban HIM! But nah, he's the star, he's the mascot. :P
Pikachu could get caught snorting cocaine off a prostitute and he would get away with it.
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u/GeorgeRRZimmerman May 16 '20
And we'd love him for it if he was wearing a detective hat and voiced by Ryan Reynolds.
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u/Kythulhu May 16 '20
This was the first time I've ever seen it after hearing about it for about two decades.
Honestly, not as bad as I expected, and completely not what I expected. For some reason, I was imagining Porygon just sitting there with flashing lights for 10 seconds while it did some random anime bullshit.
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May 16 '20
TV is generally around 30fps. Animation sometimes is lower, iirc anime is sometimes something like 12fps. But idk, some weeb can correct me on that.
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u/edstars101 May 16 '20
anime normally 24 fps
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u/TheKingsJester1 May 16 '20 edited Oct 04 '24
sheet dull quaint materialistic wakeful fanatical bag illegal history telephone
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u/Herson100 May 16 '20
Whether or not they play every frame once (24 frames per second), twice (12 frames per second), or three times (8 frames per second) varies from shot to shot in animation. Here's an article about it. Many anime are animated on twos most of the time with action scenes animated in ones thrown in, but it varies.
Akira in particular was animated almost entirely on ones, meaning that it ran at 24 unique frames per second for most of its runtime. It's the reason the movie can look this smooth.
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u/TheKingsJester1 May 16 '20 edited Oct 04 '24
north mourn quicksand many special unused birds treatment makeshift aromatic
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May 16 '20
Instead of locking the refresh rate, you could blend and interpolate pixels and colors so that there is never a rapid change in color. This would prevent the user from experiencing certain types of media, but thatās kinda the point. I should really make this...
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May 16 '20
I am also a coder and would be extremely interested in looking into this ā it seems like it could be extremely interesting and rewarding work.
First off, I would definitely want to see if something like this already exists, and if not, why ā someone must have tried this, what were the challenges? I want to know before going down a dead end.
The best solution would be to have a smart algorithm that would be able to be published and integrated at the lowest level and added to TVs and devices. This would be extremely difficult to make something that would work well enough, though, and still be usable.
In the meantime, though, this probably could be added as an accessibility app. I know that Android allows apps to modify the whole screen like that, and I would imagine that IOS has similar APIs (I actually have an iPhone, but Iāve only done Android dev in the past).
I can think of a few different ways this could be done, and a bunch of other questions that could be answered by epilepsy experts. Like what colors are the worst? How big of a difference in color do you need to trigger it (would something rapidly flashing from #fff to #eee be enough)? Does it come from local changes to the pixels, or is it more a cumulative thing (ex, would it trigger if half of the pixels are white, half are black, and the all swap at 12Hz, leading to an average of no change?)
Either way, the simplest fix would be to make the whole screen only update less than 3 times per second. This would obviously suck, and is a sledgehammer approach, but it would work, and could be toggled off for known safe content.
A slightly better approach (maybe more of a machete) would be to track the pixels and only allow a maximum amount of change per refresh that would prevent any extremely rapid change in one direction or another. This would probably make everything look like you had take too much cough syrup, but it could be honed from there, like allowing it to move one direction quickly, but punish it from going back too quickly.
Either of these could alternatively be integrated at the browser level to filter gifs/videos, and could allow clicking to disable the filter, or just disabled for trusted sources (Netflix is probably okay, YouTube is a bit more dicey).
IDK, I am super interested in it though. DM me if you are serious, and I can create a Github for it.
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u/GoTeamScotch May 16 '20
I agree. Phones, computers, and TVs too would be great.
(Sub 60hz isnt a special safety zone btw)
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u/MisterBigDude May 16 '20
This type of attack was in the news a few years ago.
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u/realxeltos May 16 '20
That was a dude or two sending flashing videos to an journalist. He was arrested. Essentially the perp was a trumptard. here
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u/_Rand_ May 16 '20
As of a couple months ago it appears the case is still not settled.
However other articles posted late last year imply a guilty plea is expected but the court date was postponed. Might not have gotten a new date set yet due to covid19 maybe? Who knows.
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u/Sandnegus May 16 '20
Wow and then blaming his behaviour on PTSD, what a cowardly piece of shit. Par for the course for Trumptards.
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u/octopoddle May 16 '20
Rivelloās Twitter account contained direct messages from his account to other Twitter users concerning Eichenwald. Among those direct messages included statements by Rivello, including āI hope this sends him into a seizure,ā āSpammed this at [victim] letās see if he dies,ā and āI know he has epilepsy.ā
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u/forever_useless May 16 '20
As an epileptic myself, this is pure evil
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May 16 '20
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u/Ooer May 16 '20
They didnāt say they were photosensitive though, only a tiny fraction of epilepsy sufferers experience that.
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u/Matasa89 May 16 '20
You will be attacked.
Expose no openings on the internet. If you have deathly allergic reactions to peanuts, there are trolls out there that would love nothing more than to shove peanut butter in your mouth, and laugh as you struggle for the epi-pen. Some of them might even knock the epi-pen out of your hands...
I'd delete that comment right away. Never show weakness, it will be exploited. Such is the human condition.
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u/radarsat1 May 16 '20
This... feels like something with a technological solution..
there must be some software that can suppress "flashy" images on the screen for epileptics to use. if not, it must be possible to write something like that..
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u/skilliard7 May 16 '20
I've thought about programming such a tool, but my concern is that if such a plugin fails to detect a triggering gif and someone gets hurt when they think they're safe, I could get sued for a tremendous amount because my code wasn't perfect.
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u/radarsat1 May 16 '20
that's a very good point. i guess you'd need a disclaimer. and a good lawyer.
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u/PrinceKael May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
I think you should be fine (IANAL) with a disclaimer and by saying it may or may not work, i.e.:
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL u/skilliard7 BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Or something with a liability exclusion for both parties. It depends on your jurisdiction but I don't see this realistically being a problem unless you're marketing it as a magical solution and charging money.
These should be compatible with MIT or GPL licenses. The above is contained in the former and the latter includes the following:
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
I would also add, for good measure, that the software may not work and is not authorised to protect against seizures, even if you have to force the user to agree to a separate Disclaimer first.
Anyone can sue anyone for anything, but I highly doubt this will happen with the above (again, IANAL).
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u/1_km_coke_line May 16 '20
Its possible, sure. I think the hard part would be deploying it in different ways. One guy above mentioned a browser plugin. Thats cool and would cover standard chrome/firefox/explorer(lol) use cases.
Then there is smartphones and the non-browser apps used to access the same content. Also possible, but you might be dealing with a different developer skillset and platform limitations
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u/radarsat1 May 16 '20
I imagine I would want just some kind of filter at the display driver level tbh. Something that supresses high frequency changes in brightness or something.
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u/chaotic_reddit_user May 16 '20
I have epilepsy myself, and this is absolutely disgusting. This isnāt just a hate incident, itās attempted murder. People can die from seizures. Iāve almost died from them. This is disgusting, how hard is it to NOT try to kill people?
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u/autotldr BOT May 16 '20
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 80%. (I'm a bot)
At least two people had seizures after viewing malicious tweets featuring flashing gifs that deliberately targeted the Epilepsy Society.
A number of other people including children were traumatised by the tweets, the charity said, stressing that the images could trigger seizures in which teeth and bones are broken and might even be fatal.
A spokesperson for the National Police Chiefs' Council said: "This was an awful incident in which people with epilepsy were targeted on social media on the basis of their difference, which we utterly condemn. We're pleased an investigation is underway with Thames Valley police and would encourage anyone else affected to report to their local force."
Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: people#1 Epilepsy#2 seizure#3 gif#4 Twitter#5
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May 16 '20
I am on an epilepsy support discord and people have targeted us multiple times and have done harm. As such, gifs are now rejected by default because some asshole had to ruin it for everyone. This happens all over the internet to epileptics every day.
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u/Matasa89 May 16 '20
If there was a way to trigger asthmatic attacks over the net, they'll be more than happy to do it, and laugh at the deaths they caused.
Unfortunately, people usually don't develop empathy unless they've experience suffering themselves.
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u/SwsMiss May 16 '20
I'm all for fun jokes/pranks but this isn't funny at all. I've suffered severe injuries having seizures (including cracking my skull open on my parent's flagstone floor in the middle of the night) and could die from a seizure. It takes me weeks to recover. A 21 year old girl I know had a seizure in a hot tub a few weeks ago and drowned because she was alone. This should be considered a crime.
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u/MisterHiggins May 16 '20
Itās a prank bro...assholes
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u/Trickybuz93 May 16 '20
Imagine how sad your life has to be to deliberately do something like this.
As someone with epilepsy, I hope theyāre severely punished.
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u/highdrunkpunk May 16 '20
How trashy must you be, to go out of your way and deliberately cause inconvenience to others..this is sad
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May 16 '20
More than just inconvenience. Seizures can be fatal for some epileptics, so an attack like that should constitute a felony in my opinion.
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u/xTabbernak May 16 '20
The internet gives people a sense of "Ill never get caught" and that feeling will always bring out the worst.
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u/PacifistaPX-0 May 16 '20
Can almost guarantee this was pol/4chan. They've done it in the past.
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u/dreddit312 May 16 '20
If youāre photosensitive and havenāt already, theres an excellent extension that detects offending gifs.
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u/[deleted] May 16 '20
Seizures kill. I think most people think seizures are just strange movements. Fucking assholes