After receiving a tweet that caused him to have an epileptic seizure on Thursday night, Newsweek reporter Kurt Eichenwald filed a civil suit in oder to identify his alleged online attacker — with the aim of then pressing criminal charges.
On Tuesday, Eichenwald shared an expedited court order in which Twitter agreed to hand over its user data on the person (or persons) that sent the tweet from the “@jew_goldstein” account, which itself has been suspended.
Eichenwald claims the attack was made in retaliation to his articles on President-elect Donald Trump, and his aggressive tweets that addressed Trump’s followers.
Twitter refuses to comment on individual cases, but its privacy policy states that it has access to “your IP address,” which is used for its location services. In its guidelines for law enforcement it states that it retains IP logs for a “very brief period of time,” while also noting that it can preserve records that “constitute potentially relevant evidence in legal proceedings.”
Twitter agreed to an expedited order in our effort to locate the user who intentionally caused me to have a seizure. https://t.co/FOb0DGnyyw
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 20, 2016
Eichenwald, who has repeatedly written about his struggles with epilepsy, was previously targeted in a similar fashion in October. At the time, the reporter claims he escaped a seizure as he dropped the device on which he was viewing the strobe video.
According to the filing, the attack on Thursday was made to cause harm as the tweet also contained the message: “You deserve a seizure for your posts.”
Eichenwald is now only using Twitter to post updates on the case. He recently tweeted that he was getting the accounts “cancelled” that were sending him strobes, indicating that he has been in touch with Twitter regarding the people who have been targeting him on the platform.
This isn’t the first legal case to have been brought against an anonymous internet troll. Last year, Illinois resident Bill Hadley successfully identified the person responsible for a verbal attack on his character as part of his libel lawsuit against the individual. Much like what happened in that case, Eichenwald will likely have to file another motion against the wireless carrier demanding the name and address associated with the @jew_goldstein account.
