Comics / Comics News

NYCC Takes Over Attendees' Twitter Accounts

By Zak Edwards
October 14, 2013 - 09:36

Well, this is a bit of a downer for what was otherwise a great Saturday and Sunday.

The New York Comic Con, the organization, released an app to help people navigate the convention, an app that also hijacked users Twitter accounts and posted tweets on their behalf.

This picture courtesy of Kotaku.com

The NYCC app was made available to people’s smartphones, reports Mashable, as a way for attendees to pre-register their badges, enter exclusive contests, etc. What was not explicitly mentioned by the app was they would be posting tweets on behalf of attendees.  Messages written in a conversational style that looked a lot like "So much pop culture to digest! Can't. handle. the. awesome! #NYCC."

Best of all, the New York Comic Con doesn’t seem to feel that they did anything that particularly wrong. In one tweet, they simply said "FYI - do not fret if #NYCC-ID tweeted as you yesterday! We shut this opt-in feature off so it won't happen anymore. Have a blast at NYCC!"

That doesn’t exactly sound like an apology, just an explanation that the app did not perform its requirement to inform users about its conditions, or provide the opt-in feature the tweet mentions.

But in an official release later that day, New York Comic Con “apologized,” saying “we were probably too enthusiastic in our messaging and eagerness to spread the good word about NYCC.” They then go on to say “we apologize for any perceived overstep,” attempting to essentially compare themselves to a puppy that pees on the carpet when a bunch of people come over. But posting content on behalf of people without telling them is not a question of perception, its a question of privacy and respect.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12