COIB’s X account: Possibly gone, but not forgotten

Brace yourselves, ethics enthusiasts – the gold standard of municipal posting may be no more. The New York City Conflicts of Interest Board’s X account appears to have stopped operating.

While the account for the city’s independent ethics agency last posted on Oct. 23 (about an NYPD officer who was fined for posing as a 311 operator), the account’s bio now reads, “This account was operated by the NYC Conflicts of Interest Board until October 2023. It is not active.”

It was around 2015 or 2016 when COIB’s experiment in injecting some humor and vitality into city government’s otherwise stale online presence first began, producing such gems as “let jungkook run ULURP,” a COVID-19 mountain poster that blew its inspiration out of the Sea of Corruption, and a mutual affection with New York City’s best media Twitter account.

One of the three COIB employees who led the management of the account back then, and who is still with the agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the agency has abandoned everyone else using X.

COIB’s Twitter walked so that the Department of Sanitation’s TikTok could delight and disturb. More importantly, it drew more attention to the ethical shortcomings of people who wield power in the city.