{"id":183716,"date":"2026-04-02T19:48:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T19:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/183716\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T19:48:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T19:48:33","slug":"exclusive-nyc-agency-bizarrely-used-tiktok-against-city-rules-to-spotlight-staten-islands-compost-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/183716\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | NYC agency bizarrely used TikTok against city rules \u2014 to spotlight Staten Island\u2019s compost facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

This brain rot is compostable!<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s sanitation department bizarrely returned to TikTok \u2013 weeks before the city reversed its ban on government accounts \u2013 in a brazen move against official rules, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

The quirky March 5 posting had a video about composting in the borough, as it highlighted so-called refuse \u201cmoors\u201d in an apparent riff on the new film \u201cWuthering Heights.\u201d <\/p>\n

The city\u2019s sanitation department bizarrely returned to TikTok in a brazen move against official rules, The Post has learned. John Hanson Pye \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The timely joke appears to have violated a years-long ban on city agency use of the social media platform \u2013 which Mayor Zohran Mamdani only reversed Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cTikTok, we\u2019re back,\u201d the mayor, who found viral social media fame during his campaign<\/a>, said in a video posted from the revived @nycmayor account this week.<\/p>\n

The ban was initiated in 2023 by then-Mayor Eric Adams, who cited concerns that the app \u2013 owned by a Chinese parent company \u2013 could share data with its foreign government.<\/p>\n

A January deal cemented a shift in TikTok\u2019s ownership to a majority of non-Chinese investors.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mamdani administration is committed to using every tool in our toolbox to communicate with New Yorkers,\u201d the city\u2019s cybersecurity arm NYC Cyber Command said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a moment when people are turning to city government for information about free services, emergency situations, upcoming events, and more, we want to open up new avenues of communication with the public and help deliver the information New Yorkers need.\u201d<\/p>\n

A review of other TikTok accounts once helmed by NYC Parks, Department of Transportation and the health department found no other apparent rule-breaks posted before Tuesday.<\/p>\n

A NYC Dept. of Sanitation truck putting down salt on a slick section of road on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

A DSNY rep declined to comment on the record about its TikTok post, only deeming its \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d spectacle \u201ccharming.\u201d<\/p>\n

A DSNY rep declined to comment on the record about its compost-related TikTok post, only deeming its \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d spectacle \u201ccharming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another post from the same TikTok account was made in 2025, an apparent reference to a social media trend using the Taylor Swift song \u201cAugust.\u201d<\/p>\n

A request from City Hall regarding the rule-break, including any potential enforcement actions taken against the agency, was not immediately returned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This brain rot is compostable! The city\u2019s sanitation department bizarrely returned to TikTok \u2013 weeks before the city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[8991,57,9,24,197,63,8992,134,136,135,9740,58,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-183716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-department-of-sanitation","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-city-life","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-sanitation-department","15":"tag-staten-island","16":"tag-staten-island-headlines","17":"tag-staten-island-news","18":"tag-tiktok","19":"tag-us-news","20":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}