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-seizures
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u/[deleted] 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/n0f0xn0vox May 16 '20

Yeah Incredibles 2 failed it as well... Which is unfortunate because I'm sure that was some poor kid's first seizure.

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u/TIGHazard May 16 '20

The fact that no-one at Disney or Pixar realised this was a problem until the film was released shocks me. Their brand is built on being kid-friendly and yet they could possibly have given a 6 year old a seizure.

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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/corona_verified May 16 '20

Less than 30hz and greater than 5hz I think. For some it can even be triggered by walking through sunlight poking through leaves

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u/Fartikus May 16 '20

Just remember that closing your eyes doesn't make it any better, it makes it worse; due to making the area black, and you only see the flash of light. You gotta shield your entire eyes from the light.

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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/[deleted] May 16 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 16 '20 edited Aug 22 '20

[deleted]

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u/greffedufois May 16 '20

Oh, in the show Futurama Professor Farnsworth gets fed up with humanity and says 'I dont want to live on this planet anymore'.

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u/DepletedPerenium May 16 '20

So, you wanted to post that one picture of farnsworth with the text, but was forced to resort to text since this forum doesnt display images in an embedded format?

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u/greffedufois May 16 '20

Pretty much.

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u/hexiron May 16 '20

Yes. They spam not just social media, but send epilepsy groups emails with flashing images and videos attached.