How to Handle GIF Attacks on X/Twitter

Have you ever been spammed with flashing or strobing lights online? Or open a post on X/Twitter and see those “harmless” gifs that randomly begin to flash at your eyes? You aren’t alone. There have been many attacks on the epilepsy community online from random trolls throughout the years that I have been advocating. Many of these people know nothing about epilepsy or seizures, which they are attempting to induce for fun. When an attack happens, I have noticed one thing in common with these accounts, almost all of them have a celebrity/artist as their profile photo and rarely have their name in their accounts.

Now, you may be asking yourself ‘What should I do?’ Below is a guide on how to properly handle the situation without getting migraines, auras, or seizures.

• Turn off autoplay (here is a guide if you don’t know how to on your mobile)

• Do NOT interact with the account

• Hide their reply

• Report the account and others associated if you wish

• Report their posts aimed toward the epilepsy community

• Block the account(s)

• Warn others

Warning others can be extremely helpful as some people in the community are photosensitive. The best way to do this is through DMs or a simple screenshot to your followers. If you’d prefer to stay in the safe zone, you could also lay low and not open the app until the attack dies down. You can also close your DMs and make your account private temporarily.

I know that the urge to interact with the account(s) attacking us may seem tempting, but that can only stir up more trouble. Many of these people are quite uneducated when it comes to epilepsy and if you try to talk sense into them, there is no guarantee that they will listen. In these cases, it is best to leave them alone, as some people have been sent more strobing gifs as a reply.

Members of my support group chimed in as well when this situation was discussed, and they shared their thoughts on this as well

“It goes from unfunny to malicious when it can cause actual seizures.”

“I don’t really understand what drives people to do stuff like that. I think it shows that people really don’t properly understand (or respect) epilepsy or the ramifications of things like that. I know for me, seizures are the scariest things I’ve ever experienced. I think trying to trigger someone’s seizure is the same thing (or worse) as stealing the handicapped spot. It’s just less than human.”

“The level of ignorance that is displayed shows how little they care about the disability community. Seizure disorders find strobe. 1 in 4,000 people* with a seizure disorder, and there are approximately 3 million people with a seizure disorder in the U.S alone.”

*This is in reference to those who are photosensitive

While Zach’s Law is only in the UK, there is not much we can do in the US that I know of regarding these attacks on X/Twitter. If you do, please DM me on X or leave a comment!