I'd like to know how hard (or easy) it would be to fool a PM into causing and unsafe fast heartbeat. I would imagine there are safeguards at a low level against such a fault. The easiest thing for a PM hacker to do, assuming they have close physical contact with the victim, would be to shut off the pacemaker and in most cases that would not do much more than cause dizziness or fainting.
No, original commenter is correct. You'd need contact with your victim, you have to hold a reader device directly over the pacemaker. Really you may as well stab them.
It seems to me this article is a fantasy. A what if scenario. I don't think this guy really knows pacemakers at all frankly. A bluetooth enabled pacemaker seems far fetched and to my knowledge such a thing does not exist. Pacemakers require the reader device to be in contact with the patient directly over the pacemaker, the range is that limited.
But first have some skepticism. You can't interface with a PM without direct contact with a patient. Pacemakers are not bluetooth enabled wifi connected internet appliances. Yes, they are programmed remotely, but in this case remote means a reader device that must be physically placed on a person directly over the pacemaker. While there are things to be legitmately concerned about, this article is a wild fantasy.
I don't think this is about, or should be about twitter/google/apple fixing social problems directly but about wondering if they're getting relatively free ride taxation wise. My sense is that they are.