(Dublin) A video portal connecting residents of Dublin and New York in real time was paused on Tuesday after a week due to numerous “inappropriate behaviors” from users, Irish authorities announced.
“The Portal”, a giant sculpture by Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylysa, aims to connect the inhabitants of two cities in real time, via a video stream 24/7, which allows them to interact live.
But as videos that went viral on social networks have shown, not everyone made good use of it: in New York, a man exposed Dubliners to a pornographic video, while in the Irish capital, a man showed an image of the September 11, 2001 attack to New York viewers.
Others exposed their private parts or made inappropriate gestures, even forcing the police to intervene in some cases.
In Dublin, the gate located near the main artery, O’Connell Street, was therefore closed on Tuesday evening. It should be reactivated “later this week”, according to the municipality.
Until then, its creators are looking for “technical solutions” which would avoid excesses caused by a “small minority of people”.
Before its inauguration on May 8, the mayor of Dublin, Daithi de Roiste, encouraged residents and visitors to the capital to show “kindness worthy of the Irish to cities around the world”.
This installation should a priori operate until the fall of 2024. The city of Dublin had also announced its intention to connect its portal with other cities in Poland, Brazil or Lithuania in the coming months.