Newsweek senior writer Kurt Eichenwald claims he located the Twitter user who allegedly caused him to have a seizure. Neither Eichenwald nor his lawyer will say how they did so without Twitter divulging information on the user to them.
Kurt Eichenwald (Youtube screenshot/ Democracy Now!)
One of Eichenwald’s attorneys, Tim Perkins, dropped a petition Tuesday seeking to have a deposition of Twitter to gain information about the Twitter account “Ari Goldstein aka @Jew_Goldstein.” This was due to Eichenwald claiming to know the identity of “Goldstein.” The Daily Caller reached out to Eichenwald to find out how he was able to figure out “Goldstein’s” identity without information from Twitter and what he would do now that he knows the Twitter user’s identity.
The Newsweek senior writer and Vanity Fair contributing editor told TheDC to reach out to his attorney Steven Lieberman. Lieberman did not respond to multiple requests for comment Thursday by press time.
M.E. Kebay, a cybersecurity expert and professor at Norwich University, told TheDC that it is possible that Eichenwald would be able to find out “Goldstein’s” identity without Twitter’s help. He added: “If the reporter was on an ordinary home network, there’s little chance of his personally having such log files. However, if the reporter was using a computer linked to a corporate network such as the Newsweek office’s system, it’s likely that the technical staff would have enabled logging and be able to do some forensic analysis.”
The alleged December Twitter assault by gif incident took place at Eichenwald’s Dallas home, not at the Newsweek office. Eichenwald filed a criminal complaint with the Dallas Police Department in December, but at the time Dallas Police was unable to discern what charges would be applicable. The Dallas Police Department told TheDC Thursday that the “investigation is ongoing.”
Peter Stephenson, an expert in cyber criminology, told TheDC Thursday that “one could say that the tweet constituted an assault.”
“An assault is an act that puts the victim in fear of an imminent harmful touching. Is it possible to ‘touch’ someone using Twitter? I would argue that it is and that this is an example of what I mean when I define a cyber crime. Taking this a step further, we might even characterize this as battery since the ‘touching’ actually took place,” Stephenson said.