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Twitter Pulls Ads After Charity Calls Them Dangerous to People With Epilepsy

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Twitter was under fire this morning for posting potentially dangerous ads to Vine, its video sharing service. The ads, which promoted Twitter’s #DiscoverMusic initiative, were 6-second-long videos of flashing lights, which could harm people with photosensitive epilepsy, The Guardian reported.

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For about 3 percent of people with epilepsy, “exposure to flashing lights at certain intensities or to certain visual patterns can trigger seizures,” according to The Epilepsy Foundation.

Epilepsy Action, the U.K.’s leading epilepsy organization, quickly contacted Twitter about the risk of their videos. The ads were up for about 18 hours, according to Business Insider, but Twitter did take them down.

Clarification: A previous version of this article referred to Epilepsy Action as a nonprofit. The organization refers to itself as a charity.

 

Originally published: July 10, 2015
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