The team behind the New York City Police Department’s Twitter account is learning a valuable lesson today: just because you start a hashtag does not mean that you own it. Once a tag is out in the open, anyone can use it to share content. Yesterday the @NYPDnews account posted this message encouraging people to share photos of themselves with the city’s finest:
Do you have a photo w/ a member of the NYPD? Tweet us & tag it #myNYPD. It may be featured on our Facebook. pic.twitter.com/mE2c3oSmm6
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) April 22, 2014
What was supposed to be community outreach has turned into a collection of photos of police aggression:
Today #NYPD invited people to tweet photos of themselves 2w #myNYPD. The campaign didn’t go quite as they expected. pic.twitter.com/05DZQ2IuWN — Raymond Johansen (@RayJoha2) April 23, 2014
Need a lift? The #NYPD‘s got you! Free Delivery, Only at #myNYPD pic.twitter.com/AStS3ZjoZu
— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) April 22, 2014
 Need a mammogram? #myNYPD has you covered! Forget Obamacare! pic.twitter.com/Fusv3WhiRZ — आनिलॠ(@guru0509) April 22, 2014
Late in the day yesterday, the NYPD issued a statement:
While the Deputy Chief was right about Twitter providing an open forum for an uncensored exchange, I’m not sure how the hostile messages and photos being shared is good for the city of New York. Clearly, this idea was not well thought out and will hopefully serve as an example to other organizations who are considering starting a conversation on social media. A little research could’ve shown how quickly a hashtag can become a bashtag.