Epilepsy

Sufferers of epilepsy suffer disgusting attacks.  Trolls are targeted people with epilepsy on Twitter with seizure-inducing videos, flashing and strobing Gifs and videos, according to the Epilepsy Foundation.

Legal advocacy director Allison Nichol said: “These attacks are no different than a person carrying a strobe light into a convention of people with epilepsy and seizures, with the intention of inducing seizures. 

About 20,000 people with epilepsy have photosensitive epilepsy, which makes them susceptible to flashing lights at certain intensities or certain visual patterns. It is most common among children and teenagers. Although smartphone displays, modern computer monitors and TV screens are somewhat less likely to trigger seizures than older equipment with a slower screen-refresh rate, a growing number of people are having seizures triggered by flashing images on Twitter and Facebook.

“When it comes to deliberately targeting people with epilepsy with the intention of causing a seizure, we need to call that behaviour what it is – a pre-meditated and pre-planned intention to assault,” said chief executive Clare Pelham said. (BBC News 18 Dec 2019)

My comment:  What sort of person gets up in the morning and decides to go to the trouble of persecuting a harmless group of (mostly young) people highly susceptible to flashing and strobing lights that bring on seizures?   I doubt the proportion of sick, cruel bullies in any population has increased, but as the overall population increases so does the proportion of the weirdos and the deliberately cruel, I suppose.  We should bring them to account and, preferably lock them up.

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