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1. Did Mr. Rivello Intend to Kill, Injure, Harass, and/or Intimidate Mr. Eichenwald
Under 18 U.S.C. §2261(A)(2)(A/B)?

The issue in this case is whether Mr. Rivello had sufficient ‘criminal intent’ to cyber stalk Mr.
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Eichenwald? Generally, criminal intent refers to a ‘criminal or wrongful purpose.’
th
First, Mr. Rivello created a fake Twitter account on or around December 11 , 2016. By using the
fake username “AriGoldstein@jew_goldstein”, or shortened on Twitter as “@jew_goldstein”, he
was able to contact Mr. Eichenwald. In response to law enforcement’s search warrant, Twitter
produced the following messages from Mr. Rivello’s Twitter account:

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• December 13 , 2016 – “[Mr. Eichenwald] deserves to have his liver pecked out by a
pack of emus”

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• December 16 , 2016 at 1:42 p.m. –“I hope this sends him into a seizure”
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• December 16 , 2016 at 2:30 p.m. –“Spammed this at [Mr. Eichenwald], let’s see if
he dies”

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• December 16 , 2016 at 5:00 p.m. –“I know he has epilepsy”
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• December 16 , 2016 at 5:30 p.m. –“If I haven’t been banned yet, check my feed
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when you wake up. @[Mr. Eichenwald]”.

It appears that from these messages, these messages depict Mr. Rivello’s intent to cause
serious physical harm to Mr. Eichenwald, mentioning to other Twitter users in direct/private
messages that he hopes his message(s) causes him to go into a seizure, or die. Furthermore,
the messages indicate that Mr. Rivello knew that Mr. Eichenwald was epileptic, and despite Mr.
Rivello’s potential to be banned from Twitter, continued to send similar messages out to the
public.

2. Is Twitter Considered to be an “Interactive Computer Service” or “Electronic
Communication Service Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §2261(A)(2)(A/B)?”

The second element of the Statute requires the use of “any interactive computer service or
electronic communication service.” Mr. Rivello used the social networking platform, Twitter to
contact Mr. Eichenwald. Twitter is a free-access social media platform/dashboard that allows
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users with Twitter accounts to create, share, and read 140-character messages called
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“tweets”. During the registration process, a user must create a unique Twitter username, also
known as a “Twitter Handle”, indicated by the “@” followed by their username. Users are able to
“favorite” or like other messages, “retweet” or share other messages, and even reply to the
tweets of other users. Additionally, users can directly tweet to or send a message directly to the
page of the recipient user by starting their tweet off with the “@” and typing the intended
recipients’ username. Lastly, a user can also send a direct message or privately message
another user, which appears in their inbox, rather than their public page, so long as they have
not been blocked by Twitter or that user.

20 Black’s Law Online Dictionary (2 ed. 2009), http://thelawdictionary.org/criminal-intent/
nd
21 (Case 3:17-mj-00192-BK; Hopp Aff. ¶ 17)
22 The term “users” used throughout this article refers to all individuals with a registered Twitter username and uses
the service to communicate and exchange information.
23 Hopp Aff. ¶¶ 8-13; see also www.twitter.com
100 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – May 2017 Edition
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