A “portal” giving New Yorkers a real-time view of Dublin, Ireland has been temporarily closed because of “inappropriate behavior,” the Dublin City Council and the Flatiron NoMad Partnership said.
The portal was turned off at 5 p.m. Tuesday and will be turned on again by the end of the week, the partnership said.
The partnership said the decision to close the portal for a few days was made after a “very small minority of portal visitors” engaged in inappropriate behavior, which was shared on social media.
The portals were shut down Monday night after videos spread on social media of people behaving badly — from an OnlyFans model in New York baring her breasts to Dubliners holding up swastikas and displaying images of New York’s Twin Towers burning on 9/11.
The screens, which only broadcast video with no audio, were back up Tuesday morning but were to be powered down again Tuesday evening, according to officials in New York and Dublin.
According to the Dublin City Council and the partnership, the portal’s art sculpture team, Portals.org, is working on technology to limit the inappropriate behavior. The Dublin City Council said they hoped to have a resolution Tuesday, but “the preferred solution, which would have involved blurring, was not satisfactory.”
The New York City location has implemented 24/7 security measures and barriers to prevent people from getting too close to the portal, the partnership said.
Tens of thousands of people have visited the portal since its launch last week, according to the partnership. The “overwhelming majority” of visitors have acted appropriately, the partnership and the Dublin City Council said.