Twitter bans animated PNGs to protect epileptic users
Microblogging giant Twitter is enforcing a ban on animated PNGs on its platform. The move, which will not remove existing APNGs but prevent further uploads on Twitter app/website, comes as part of an effort to keep hackers from using images of this kind to cause seizures in epileptic and photo-sensitive individuals. Here's all you need to know about it.
Bug allows uploading of multiple animated PNGs
Just recently, Twitter discovered a critical bug in its app/website, an issue that allowed attackers to bypass its autoplay safeguards and upload multiple animated images to a tweet using APNG file format. This led to concerns that the animated images could be sent in bulk to crash Twitter app/website or trigger life-threatening seizures in photo-sensitive and epileptic patients.
So, Twitter ended support for APNGs
Owing to the risk posed by APNGs, Twitter decided to end support for the format on its platform. "APNGs were fun, but they don't respect autoplay settings, so we're removing the ability to add them to tweets," the company said in a tweet announcing the move. "This is for the safety of people with sensitivity to motion and flashing imagery, including those with epilepsy."
Here's what Twitter said on the matter
Backstory: Epilepsy Foundation's Twitter account was targeted last month
While the action from Twitter would prevent future APNG exploits, it is worth noting that an attack was carried out last month when trolls used the Epilepsy Foundation's handle and hashtags to share animated images with strobing light effects. It remains unclear how many people were affected but Twitter says it is not aware of anyone using APNGs to trigger seizures.
This won't affect your experience significantly
The decision to ditch APNGs won't probably affect your Twitter experience, as a majority of people already use GIFs to share animations and memes. And while we have seen that GIFs can also be abused to harm people with photo-sensitivity and Epilepsy, they don't dodge the auto-play restrictions on Twitter.
