#MyNYPD
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Overview
#MYNYPD is a hashtag campaign launched by the New York Police Department as a community outreach program on Twitter. While intended as a feel-good social media event to boost the image of the NYPD, the hashtag stream quickly became flooed with photographs of its uniformed officers resorting to violence.
Background
At 1:55 p.m. (ET) on April 22nd, 2014, @NYPDNews[1] tweeted a message calling on its followers to share their photographs with NYPD police officers using the hashtag #MyNYPD.
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
Notable Developments
The NYPD's community outreach hashtag was initially met with genuine responses from its followers on Twitter, but it soon turned into an all-day exhibition of images depicting police brutality and racial profiling, including many photographs that went viral during the height of Occupy Wall Street protests. According to Topsy[2], the hashtag #MyNYPD was mentioned more than 180,000 times on April 22nd.
News Media Coverage
That afternoon, the hijacking of #MyNYPD on Twitter was reported on by The Daily Dot[3], Gawker[4], VICE[5], The Verge[6], Mediate[7], Mashable[8] and The Huffington Post[10], as well as a number of local and national news outlets.[9][12][13]
External References
[1] Twitter – NYPDNews's Tweet
[2] Topsy – Social Analytics for #MyNYPD
[3] The Daily Dot – NYPD's hashtag campaign backfires horribly
[4] Gawker – NYPD's Twitter Outreach Backfires in Most Predictable Way Possible
[5] VICE – EVERYONE'S TWEETING PHOTOS OF POLICE BRUTALITY THANKS TO A FAILED NYPD HASHTAG
[6] The Verge – NYPD's Twitter photo contest backfires with images of aggressive police force
[7] Mediate – Fail: NYC Police’s #MyNYPD Hashtag Campaign Horribly Backfires
[8] Mashable – NYPD's Feel-Good Hashtag Campaign Backfires
[9] CBS – #MyNYPD Twitter Hashtag Backfires, Gets Flooded With Images Of Police Brutality
[10] Huffington Post – This NYPD Idea Backfired Horribly On Twitter
[11] Le Monde – #MYNYPD – L’opération ratée de la police de New York sur Twitter
[12] Washington Post – Well, the #MyNYPD hashtag sure backfired quickly
[13] Wall Street Journal – Twitter Response to #myNYPD Turns Sour
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Top Comments
The Illustrious Reggie
Apr 23, 2014 at 02:42PM EDT
Icecane
Apr 23, 2014 at 12:35PM EDT