New York Comic Con stops hijacking attendees' tweets, organizers apologize

New York Comic Con 2013 attendees will no longer automatically generate promotional tweets for the event from their accounts, organizers for the show announced today on Twitter.

Last night, hundreds of attendees to the comic book, gaming, movie and pop culture-focused event realized — almost entirely to their dismay — that they had unwittingly authorized the event to send tweets from whatever Twitter account they had registered with. Those tweets included enthusiastic proclamations like "So much pop culture to digest! Can't. handle. the. awesome. #NYCC," which were posted to attendees' accounts whenever the RFID chips embedded in their NYCC badges were scanned.

Today, NYCC organizers tweeted that the "opt-in feature" would be discontinued.

In a statement to Polygon, a representative for the event apologized for organizers' "eagerness" in spreading the ghostwritten tweets.

"As you may have seen yesterday, there were some posts to Twitter and Facebook issued by New York Comic Con on behalf of attendees after RFID badges were registered," the representative wrote. "This was an opt-in function after signing in, but we were probably too enthusiastic in our messaging and eagerness to spread the good word about NYCC. We have since shut down this service completely and apologize for any perceived overstep. Please accept our apologies and have an absolutely excellent time this weekend."