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Twitter Yanks Ads UK Activists Say Could Trigger Seizures

After complaints from UK charity Epilepsy Action, Twitter pulled after less than a day two ads that the group said might cause epileptic seizures. The in-house ads, in the 6-second format of Twitter-owned Vine, consisted of flashing video which the Epilepsy Action said "was dangerous, as it could potentially produce seizures in people who have photo-sensitive epilepsy."

63 comments

  1. Bad thing happens.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good thing happens..

    Boring news..

  2. Scary? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It certainly makes sense for Twitter to pull an ad as they are partially responsible for them.

    On the other hand it does bring up interesting questions of videos on say youtube or vimeo or facebook or gifs on vine that could cause epilepsy. Is there any responsibility for posting such videos?

     

    1. Re:Scary? by msobkow · · Score: 0

      You choose to watch videos on those feeds.

      You don't choose which ads are going to inundate your browser.

      --
      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    2. Re:Scary? by ultranova · · Score: 2

      You choose to watch videos on those feeds.

      You don't choose to watch a seizure-inducing flashing video unless it's either clearly labeled as such, or you have pyschic powers. Compare: you open your front door and out of nowhere a lion leaps at you. Did you "choose" to be eaten by a lion?

      Of course, since the mechanism that generates seizures from flashing content is a pretty simple function of said content's pixel values, such labeling could easily be done automatically. And I'm sure at least Google would be more than happy to let you let them know you wish to not see such videos, or perhaps even offer a "de-seizured" edited version.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    3. Re:Scary? by Barny · · Score: 1

      Well, if they are responsible then they would have a warning like this video does WARNING! YOU WATCH THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK: https://vimeo.com/70257842

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
    4. Re:Scary? by obarel · · Score: 2

      How about, instead of auto-tagging flashing adverts to allow some people to opt-out of them, people can just not make annoying adverts, much like avoiding the <blink> tag even if it's still supported?

      By the way, I've just googled 'blink tag' and the result is quite amusing (if you don't suffer from epilepsy, that is).

    5. Re:Scary? by vivian · · Score: 2

      Now if only video ads in general caused epileptic seizures, so we could get them banned too.

      Sadly, for me, they only trigger an irresistible desire to close that browser tab.

      Sure - I understand a website that is providing interesting content for free has to have advertisement to support it - and I am mostly ok with that - I just wish it was static text and pictures, instead of bloody annoyingly intrusive video ads.

    6. Re:Scary? by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I believe it is still supported but it is not (and has never been) an actual standard. There is no authoritative specification for the blink element.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  3. ... How can they even watch the internet? by Karmashock · · Score: 0

    Its full of flashing graphics. I mean just the pages loading in has flashing graphics. Images aren't there... then they are... the page realigns when graphics load in above or below... additional scripts load that change formating.

    If I had photo sensitive epilepsy... I'd need a bib just to use the internet... I'd be foaming all over myself.

    At a bear minimum, I would think I'd just have adblock enabled when I used the internet... because... photo sensitive epilepsy. I'm pretty sure I'd still need a bib.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    1. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Christ, I didn't think anyone could make Ellen Pao seem pleasant.

    2. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 2

      I had occipital lobe epilepsy (i.e. in the visual cortex), and while seizures began with visual hallucinations, I was never susceptible to flashing lights. There was no response to them even on an EEG.

      The strangest case of a trigger I ever heard was the woman who had seizures every time she heard the voice of Mary Hart on Entertainment Tonight.

    3. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by mlheur · · Score: 2

      Are you trying to say mongrel or Mongol. Either way your ignorance is amazing; I don't mean it's a good thing, just that I am amazed someone can be so ignorant.

      I believe natural selection is a good thing, but not so much about manual selection. Humans make too many mistakes to be allowed to make those decisions.

    4. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Either way your ignorance is amazing

      Perhaps it isn't ignorance; perhaps the Horde put his people were put to the sword like the mongrels they were.

    5. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by sjames · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's not just the fast change, it's the repetitive pattern that does it. IIRC, 3Hz and 7Hz are particularly problematic, but other frequencies can be a problem.

      So, square turns from red to green, no problem, square flashed between red and green at 3 Hz, problem.

    6. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by war4peace · · Score: 1

      The bear minimum might be a bit too much, how about a wolf minimum? Fox minimum? How low could it go? Mouse minimum might be a wee bit too much.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    7. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Gaygirlie · · Score: 2

      Images aren't there... then they are... the page realigns when graphics load in above or below... additional scripts load that change formating.

      *facepalm* That's not how epilepsy works.

    8. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Mongol" or "Mongoloid" used to be the term for someone with Down's Syndrome. The term was more common a generation ago, and was coined and perpetuated largely in ignorance and racism in the 1860s. Those with Down's Syndrome were simply classified as "idiots", and some European doctor thought they looked like ethnic Mongols. He later discarded those beliefs, but the name stuck. Nowadays you don't hear it too much except in less-than-savory company, like with our AC friend above.

      BTW, it's really best to ignore the trolls. I'm sort of breaking my own rule by responding at all, but I thought it was worth knowing where that term comes from.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    9. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      I have epilepsy too and seizure triggers are a really complex issue. I've always been able to stare at stroboscopic lights without anything happening (not even after one night's sleep deprivation prior to an EEG to get a seizure recorded). However, I've repeatedly gotten a seizure if I've broken a pencil lead when writing. Not due to the seizure but 10-20 seconds after it happening, I've gotten one. Similarly, I know at least one phrase which gives me that feeling that a seizure is coming (you too are probably familiar with that "advance warning" feeling). Seeing a seizure in some video clip also gives me such a strong "a seizure is coming" feeling that I rather not watch (real seizures, not fake acting bullshit). That said, nowadays my epilepsy is in remission with pills and I can drive a car, sail etc. (and also write with pencils) but thinking about seizures is very unpleasant and one risk that I still don't take is to demonstrate what a real seizure looks like. I was once asked and realized that doing so gives me such a strong advance warning feeling that I'd better not do it.

      As a side note, I find it funny that some idiot in this conversation thinks epilepsy has something to do with mental retardation when studies have proven the contrary. Most people with epilepsy have above average IQ. A more accurate conclusion is that our brains are a little bit "overclocked". There's a long list of geniuses throughout history that have had seizures.

    10. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Your comment is incredibly ignorant.

      Some European doctor? It was Down himself who coined the term Mongoloid Idiot. This is probably as much to be an aide-memoire for diagnostic purposes as for anything else. Down dedicated his life to the improvement of people who were born with mental difficulties and achieved some measure of success in that. He was anti-slavery and did not consider other races inferior.

      It is the fact that the term is associated with the abnormality that made it an insult. Use any PC word you like to refer to people with learning difficulties, and it will also end up being used in playground insults, and 20 years later it will be "inappropriate".

    11. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Christ, I didn't think anyone could make Ellen Pao seem pleasant.

      That was Ellen, you insensitive clod!

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    12. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice work, mein Fuehrer. Nice work.

    13. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I mean just the pages loading in has flashing graphics. Images aren't there... then they are... the page realigns when graphics load in above or below... additional scripts load that change formating.

      It's not that bad flashing. Besides, most web browsers load pages quite cleanly these days.

    14. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Falos · · Score: 1

      This. I think things derp slightly differently now (and I noscript/requestpolicy everything) but noughtie's internet was oozing with flashing GIFs and shit. Also SWFs. Shoot the duck and win a ringtone! Catch the balloon and win an ipod! You are the 1,000,000th visitor to the site!

      This is yet another example of the post-surfacedwellers internet trying to PC everything. Though, I suppose this instance was a positive one.

    15. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fortunately drugs and/or surgery can help all but the most intractable cases of epilepsy.

      Surgery can also help idiots who think epilepsy has something to do with retardation. It's call a lobotomy.

    16. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 1

      Are you sure that breaking the pencil lead is what's precipitating your seizure? My first thought is that breaking the lead is a harbinger of an oncoming seizure.

      I realize that this could be dangerous and certainly not pleasant, but have you tried, perhaps under a doctor's supervision, purposely breaking the lead while writing to see if it triggers your seizure?

    17. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you sure that breaking the pencil lead is what's precipitating your seizure? My first thought is that breaking the lead is a harbinger of an oncoming seizure.

      I'm reasonably sure that it isn't. When the usual EEGs weren't useful, I was in a week-long EEG during which I was without pills and did everything I normally do - including writing with a pencil and intentionally breaking it when it didn't happen by accident. For those curious how a week-long EEG is done (or was done 19 years ago in Finland to be precise): I had a cordless transmitter on my waist to which the electrodes from my head were connected so that I could otherwise live as usual for one week in a monitoring "condo" at the hospital. In addition to the EEG they had a constant video recording so that also what precise muscles get spasms during a seizure would be seen. One small seizure was recorded as intended but the only major seizure I got was when I was in the only area without a video camera: The restroom. The nurses could see from the EEG what was going on and rushed in but I had already fallen to the floor then. I recall being impressed by what nowadays is nothing: The video was not stored in analog form, it was streamed to a server over the hospital's intranet. IIRC still image webcams were rare then and you usually had to wait forever for the picture to load over a 28.8 modem if more than two users wanted to see the same image... Damn, how quickly technology becomes the unimpressive norm!

    18. Re:... How can they even watch the internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you propose that those decisions are made by whom?

  4. Adblock by penguinoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    is good for your health.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    1. Re:Adblock by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      Adblock does nothing on Twitter. Twitter disguises ads as tweets.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    2. Re:Adblock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Twitter is bad for your health.

  5. Thank God for epileptics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's nice to have a medical reason to have wildly flashing and distracting ads pulled. Beceuase being an obnoxious distraction making it impossible to focus on the content is not enough when money is at stake.

  6. FTFY by o_ferguson · · Score: 0

    "Twitter is dangerous, as it could potentially produce narcissism in people who have cellular packet-radio telephones."

    --
    - In Soviet Korea, only old people loose all their bases to Natalie Portman's petrified hot grits overlords.
  7. Two Words: by o_ferguson · · Score: 0

    Blink Tag.

    --
    - In Soviet Korea, only old people loose all their bases to Natalie Portman's petrified hot grits overlords.
  8. Re:British man arrested for sale of grapefruit kni by Teun · · Score: 1
    You are looking in the right direction, the UK is since many years enforcing a nanny state and the subject of flashing displays fits nicely.

    Yes it is horrible if you are afflicted with this sensitivity but I am really wondering why it is ONLY on UK TV that you are warned about an upcoming item with 'flash photography'.
    Is this sensitivity outside of the UK so rare as to not be a concern?

    Or do the sufferers in other countries just turn away their eyes when they notice the offending picture?

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  9. Ignorant noise by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Consider what other posters have written about the trigger instead of assuming any flashing does it.

  10. Seen Something Like This Before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In 2002/2003 BMW ran some advertising on Reuters.com that had an animated swirling pattern at the start. This triggered an epileptic attack in one of our users so I reported it to Reuters and they pulled the ad damn quick. Someone from Reuters even phoned us later on to make sure that the guy was OK.

    People DO care about this stuff but the advertisers don't realise that their latest flash creation might have problems with a small subset of the population.

    1. Re:Seen Something Like This Before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People DO care about this stuff but the advertisers don't realise that their latest flash creation might have problems with a small subset of the population.

      I'm pretty sure most people do know about it. It's quite common knowledge (at least through popular examples, like the Teletubbies or Pokemon episodes), and should be even more known to anyone working on videos... They may underestimate it a bit, because the details are less commonly known, but there is definitely at least a matter of "willful carelessness", because these people also learned that flashing visuals are easily grabbing attention, increasing the level of 'action' (including through heart rate, particularly when coupled with associated sound/music), and even inducing subliminal effects, and most will anyway take the risk of having news outlets talk even more of their advertisings/videos/movies because "it may/did cause epileptic seizures".

      Greed will also have them underestimate how annoying these flashes can be to many other people, particularly when we know how annoying they are, and the motives behind their continued use...

  11. Flashing animations should be banned anyway... by tp_xyzzy · · Score: 1

    I don't have epilepsy, but still the flashing animations or music videos which alternate black and white screens are very annoying. They should really be banned for good. Whoever creates such videos for consumption of large number of people should consider it 2nd time before posting their video. Same problem is with discos and restaurants that use flickering or blinking lights synced to the music.

    1. Re:Flashing animations should be banned anyway... by laurencetux · · Score: 1

      why do you think that Fire Police and EMS lights have a very obvious "jitter" to them?

      I would be in favor of having the owners of places charged with aggravated assault / attempted homicide since i would also have such factors in published documents that they would have to read before getting a business license.

    2. Re:Flashing animations should be banned anyway... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go to a place overlooking a city one day when there is an event many people are watching on the same channel. During commercials you will see coordinated flashing in all the highrise windows. It looks like everyone being brainwashed or memory wiped by that men in black tool.

  12. Re:British man arrested for sale of grapefruit kni by Calydor · · Score: 1

    First of all, ANY reason to get constantly flashing ads banned from the internet is a GOOD reason.

    Secondly, it's just other kinds of offending pictures that other countries' citizens could learn to look away from rather than flying into a rage and trying to have them banned.

    Yes, I'm talking about the religious fanatics here. You pick which religion.

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  13. How is this news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Headline: Twitter does very easy completely non-contentious thing that obviously they should do. Why is this worthy of a post?

  14. Re:British man arrested for sale of grapefruit kni by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Grapefruit knife?, you don't know the 'arf of it mate...

    A butter knife is considered a 'bladed article' under Section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988..

    (see: This page

  15. UK rules by dhaen · · Score: 2

    In the UK we have specific rules about this for broadcast TV (from OFCOM document ): http://stakeholders.ofcom.org....

    A potentially harmful flash occurs when there is a pair of opposing changes in luminance (i.e., an increase in luminance followed by a decrease, or a decrease followed by an increase) of 20 candelas per square metre (cd.m-2) or more (see notes 1 and 2). This applies only when the screen luminance of the darker image is below 160 cd.m-2. Irrespective of luminance, a transition to or from a saturated red is also potentially harmful. 3.1.1. Isolated single, double, or triple flashes are acceptable, but a sequence of flashes is not permitted when both the following occur: i. the combined area of flashes occurring concurrently occupies more than one quarter of the displayed (see note 3) screen area; and ii. there are more than three flashes within any one-second period. For clarification, successive flashes for which the leading edges are separated by 9 frames or more are acceptable, irrespective of their brightness or screen area.

    Nanny state or not, it makes no sense to have a set of rules for one screen and not another, within a household.

    1. Re:UK rules by JoeMerchant · · Score: 2

      Active epilepsy is rare, but not as rare as people think: about 1:100 people. Roughly 1:25 people will have more than one seizure in their lifetime.

      Photosensitive epilepsy is even more rare: about 1:100 among people with epilepsy. So, this means that a stadium filled with 50,000 people (from a completely unbiased cross-section) would have 5 photosensitive epileptics present. But selection is always at work, and photosensitive epileptics tend to shy away from things that might trigger their condition.

      While you probably don't have epilepsy, and you probably don't have epileptics in your immediate family (genetic bias also at work...), you probably know several - even if you are not aware of it. Due to the social stigmas, most epileptics hide their condition as best they can. If we, as a society, actually believe in equal access for the handicapped, epileptics are a grossly under-served slice of the population. Being considerate of the photo-sensitives is a nice gesture, but it isn't helping the other 99%.

  16. What's next? by MitchDev · · Score: 0

    "Warning: This ad may contain peanuts!!!"

  17. Why worry about about epileptic people? by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    Why worry about about epileptic people when you have the chance to annoy millions?

  18. Watch the ad dad, watch the ad! by Demonoid-Penguin · · Score: 1

    We want another ride!

  19. I have a non-epilepsy example by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    USA Network Online has one extremely loud commercial, for Polar Pops, that can damage your hearing if you are watching with a headset adjusted for the normal volume range of the program. Mr Robot, meet Mr Deaf Viewer.

  20. This product contains... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This ad contains images known to the state of California to cause cancer.

    Slashdot contains articles known to the state of California to cause cancer.

    1. Re:This product contains... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Being American helps increase the chances of you being a stupid fat bastard.

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  22. Predicted in Max Headroom by stox · · Score: 1

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    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
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    In a similar vein is "Epileptika", a fan-made video for the Fixed remix of "Gave Up" by Nine Inch Nails.

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