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It’s easy to dismiss the warnings about what’s coming, lots of people do, arguing that only the wildly pessimistic think we’re headed for serious trouble. Stories like this suggest you can’t be too pessimistic about what’s coming.

John Rivello, the Twitter user who allegedly sent a tweet that caused a journalist to have a seizure, was charged by the Dallas District Attorney Monday with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The felony assault charge comes with a hate crime enhancement.

The Maryland man was arrested by the FBI Friday for allegedly sending an animated image, also known as a GIF, to Newsweek writer Kurt Eichenwald in December which said, “you deserve a seizure.”

Eichenwald’s wife subsequently tweeted that the GIF had indeed caused Eichenwald to have a seizure. The federal criminal complaint says that a direct message from Rivello’s alleged account, “Ari Goldstein” or “@jew_goldstein,” to another account said he hopes that the GIF “sends” Eichenwald “into a seizure.”

The FBI located Rivello through an Apple iCloud account associated with a phone number he used to sign up for Twitter. The iCloud account included a photo of Rivello posing with his driver’s license, the complaint says.

This appears to be first situation where someone has been arrested due to an internet posting causing the direct bodily harm of another user. Rivello is being being charged federally under a law which prohibits using an electronic communication with the intent of hurting or killing another individual.

The assertion that an image caused this lunatic to have a seizure is so ridiculous, that it is impossible to assume the authorities believe it. Even if such a thing were remotely possible, it means we will need to build a lot of new prisons. If posting certain images is not a criminal act solely because someone claims harm, this ends with everyone accusing everyone of a criminal act. The fact is, the FBI is just harassing this guy because they want to send a message. That message is you better get permission before you speak.

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AquinasJohnPaul

3 years ago

Note the hate crime enhancements on the charges. Their goal here is to make alt-right ideas illegal.

The same FBI that couldn’t get Richard Spencer’s assailant sure found time to find a random Internet no name.

It’s good to be in the (((tribe))).

John the River

Member

Reply to AquinasJohnPaul

Obama embeds in the FBI.

Is it like Dracula, and when you stake the Master Vampire the new thralls are cured? It’s worth a try.

Frank

Eichenwald is a lunatic of the first order himself. The interview that shortly preceded the gif being sent to him strongly suggests that.

George Orwell

Couple this with millennial indifference to free speech and may I introduce you to Airstrip One?

Guest

This appears to be a federal indictment. Jeff Sessions can put a stop to this lunacy right now if he wants to do so.

James LePore

Reply to Guest

It’s not federal, it’s state. The DA looks like an affirmative action hire to me: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2016/12/06/dallas-county-new-district-attorney-report-says.

Reply to James LePore

Not to be contrary, but the Daily Caller article identifies it as a Federal Criminal Complaint and it was investigated by the FBI. The previous Daily Caller article also identifies that the defendant was charged under a Federal statute.

This appears to be a Federal charge, which means it would be brought by the US Attorney’s office in Dallas. Sessions can put a stop to this right now.

I will look further. You could be right. The news reports I read say “Dallas District Attorney” so that’s what I went by.

You’re right, it’s federal.

walt reed

I read her statement: “this is the peoples office”, “nobody loves crime”, “this is a fight”, etc, etc. Double digit people can pass the bar in Texas?

Anonymous White Male

“The federal criminal complaint says that a direct message from Rivello’s alleged account, “Ari Goldstein” or “@jew_goldstein,”

This is the real reason he is being harassed.

james wilson

Reply to Anonymous White Male

Attention will be paid the first time these cowards go after a Muslim for a tweet.

Lorenzo

For what it’s worth, there seems to be such a thing as photosensitive epilepsy, flashing lights being one of the seizure triggers.

http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/triggers-seizures/photosensitivity-and-seizures

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosensitive_epilepsy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy_syndromes

thor47

Reply to Lorenzo

Not to be rude, Lorenzo, but there doesn’t ” seem ” to be a flashing light trigger for epilepsy seizures. There is a specific test with varying flashing light patterns, colors, and rates as part of routine testing for the cause/causes of seizures. The third time a neurologist wanted to me to undergo it I said, ” No. Two tests have proved that doesn’t cause mine, and i won’t waste my time or the money. ” I now have a neurologist who listens to me. 🙂

Reply to thor47

Apparently there isn’t for you; there are others.

-1

Dr. Mabuse

That’s well-known. My daughter has epilepsy – her seizures usually occurred at night, when she’d allowed herself to get overtired and hadn’t had enough sleep. But she could get minor episodes during the day if exposed to flashing lights. Hell, just driving in late afternoon through a stand of trees with the sun slanting through them could be enough to set her off. Can I sue homeowners who don’t cut their trees down?

Happily, her condition is well-controlled by medication. Maybe Eichenwald should increase his meds.

thezman

Author

Reply to Dr. Mabuse

That’s just the point. For people with this condition, it is diagnosed early, they take meds for it and they avoid looking at flashing lights for extended periods.

hokkoda

You have to wonder if this is some sort of marketing gimmick by “Twitter”. What a complete waste of time that thing is. Their business model is to try and sell things to people who have a defined attention span of 140 characters…not even 140 words…and their mascot is a sparrow.

This sounds like something the marketing department for those morons would come up with. “Idea! Need juicy novel. Villain sends death Tweet, gets arrested. Lots of *publicity*. Guaranteed 400,000 unique enrollments! A sure market coup”

Durandel Almiras

Another lesson to learn is make sure your thought crime accounts don’t tie into your Apple products (and stop buying Apple products if possible). Twitter gave them the phone number. Apple connected the phone number to an account, and then handed over his online stored photos to find a selfie he took.

karl hungus

This fool Goldstein has acidentally revealed a simple and effective way to control the liberal mind! Who knew it was so easy?

Ben h

You got to ask, would they be going after this guy if he didn’t target a relatively well known and connected person (he was a high profile 100% Hillary shill during the election)? If this guy went after an obnoxious blogger or anonymous weirdo would the feds waste time to investigate?

You’d have to think not. It’s a problem when the rich become able to use state security forces as their private police and score settlers.

Christopher S. Johns

Eichenwald is a documented pedobear pervert and douchey drama queen. The whole twitter scenario was clearly an act, down to the tweet his “wife” allegedly tweeted after poor little Kurt’s so-called seizure. The truth is that Rivello had been brutally trolling Eichenwald for weeks before this incident, and Kurt, being a classic mangina, used the opportunity offered by the tweeted gif to play the victim.

Line Dog

Welcome to the next iteration of “Rape Culture”. As with the current iteration, it will be used to destroy your individual rights. This one will be employed to promote the “fair regulation” of all public communication on the interwebs. Sooner than you think, there will be a Zero Tolerance Policy for “violent tweets” and offensive posts on *any* social media site…. and then they’ll move on to openly private communications. After all, now that everyone’s cell phone has been transformed into a Tele-screen, the sky’s the limit for intrusive government intervention into all of your communications. Toast their success with… Read more »

Heh, misfired on this bit –
…and then they’ll move on to openly “regulating” all of your private communications as well.

vladdy

Why do many video games have seizure warnings on them?

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