Twitter is banning animated PNG image files (APNGs) from its platform, after an attack on the Epilepsy Foundation\u2019s Twitter account sent out similar animated images that could potentially cause seizures in photosensitive people.<\/p>\n
Twitter discovered a bug that allowed users to bypass its autoplay settings, and allow several animated images in a single tweet using the APNG file format.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want everyone to have a safe experience on Twitter,\u201d the company says in a\u00a0tweet from the Twitter Accessibility<\/a>\u00a0handle. \u201cAPNGs were fun, but they don\u2019t respect autoplay settings, so we\u2019re removing the ability to add them to Tweets. This is for the safety of people with sensitivity to motion and flashing imagery, including those with epilepsy.\u201d<\/p>\n Tweets with existing APNG images won\u2019t be deleted from the platform, but only GIFs will be able to animate images moving forward.<\/p>\n Twitter has further clarified that APNG files were not used to target the Epilepsy Foundation, but the bug meant such files could have been used to do so in the future had Twitter not moved to squash it.<\/p>\n The attacks on the Epilepsy Foundation\u2019s Twitter handle occurred last month \u2014 National Epilepsy Awareness Month \u2014 with trolls using its hashtags and Twitter handle to post animated images with strobing light effects. It\u2019s not clear how many people may have been affected by the attack, but the foundation said it\u2019s cooperating with law enforcement officials and has\u00a0filed criminal complaints<\/a>\u00a0against accounts believed to have been involved.<\/p>\n An animated image can be\u00a0considered a deadly weapon<\/a>, a Texas jury found in 2016, after a man sent a\u00a0flashing GIF to journalist Kurt Eichenwald<\/a>, who has epilepsy. The image did indeed cause Eichenwald to have a seizure.<\/p>\n