This brain rot is compostable!
The city’s sanitation department bizarrely returned to TikTok – weeks before the city reversed its ban on government accounts – in a brazen move against official rules, The Post has learned.
The quirky March 5 posting had a video about composting in the borough, as it highlighted so-called refuse “moors” in an apparent riff on the new film “Wuthering Heights.”
The timely joke appears to have violated a years-long ban on city agency use of the social media platform – which Mayor Zohran Mamdani only reversed Tuesday.
“TikTok, we’re back,” the mayor, who found viral social media fame during his campaign, said in a video posted from the revived @nycmayor account this week.
The ban was initiated in 2023 by then-Mayor Eric Adams, who cited concerns that the app – owned by a Chinese parent company – could share data with its foreign government.
A January deal cemented a shift in TikTok’s ownership to a majority of non-Chinese investors.
“The Mamdani administration is committed to using every tool in our toolbox to communicate with New Yorkers,” the city’s cybersecurity arm NYC Cyber Command said.
“At 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.”
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.
A DSNY rep declined to comment on the record about its compost-related TikTok post, only deeming its “Wuthering Heights” spectacle “charming.”
Another post from the same TikTok account was made in 2025, an apparent reference to a social media trend using the Taylor Swift song “August.”
A request from City Hall regarding the rule-break, including any potential enforcement actions taken against the agency, was not immediately returned.
