Officials have hit a pause on a video screen called The Portal that lets people in New York and Dublin peer into life on opposite sides of the Atlantic in real time.

The Portal, which has been a source of whimsical delight for crowds in the two cities, turned out to be a magnet for boorish behaviour, with videos circulating on social media of people behaving badly.

From an OnlyFans model in New York baring her breasts, to Dubliners mooning, holding up swastikas and displaying images of New York's Twin Towers burning on 9/11, the insubordinate spectators caused officials to hit pause on the art project for now.

'Embrace the beauty of global interconnectedness'

The live streaming public art installation made its North American debut on May 8, with a circular screen set up below New York City's iconic Flatiron Building and a companion screen on Dublin, Ireland's main thoroughfare, O'Connell Street, with city landmarks including the Spire in the backdrop.

Exhibit organisers touted the interactive display as a unique way to "embrace the beauty of global interconnectedness."

"Portals are an invitation to meet people above borders and differences and to experience our world as it really is — united and one," said Benediktas Gylys, the Lithuanian artist who conceived the installation, when the screens were unveiled to fanfare.

But just days into a run that was to have continued into autumn, both portals were shut down on Monday night following the videos on social media showing people behaving badly. 

The screens, which only broadcast video with no audio, were back up on Tuesday morning but were to be powered down again on Tuesday evening, according to officials in New York and Dublin.

Michael Ryan, a spokesperson for the Dublin City Council, said exhibit organisers were looking into "possible technical solutions" to address the inappropriate behaviour. The displays were expected to return later in the week, he said.

'Overwhelming majority' behaved appropriately

Zac Roy, a spokesperson for the Flatiron NoMad Partnership, a local Manhattan business group, stressed the "overwhelming majority" of people interacting with the city's portal have behaved appropriately.

Mr Roy said there's been around-the-clock security and barriers in place at the New York location since the exhibit launched.

Mr Gylys, meanwhile, didn't respond to messages seeking comment on Tuesday, but his organisation Portals has said it encourages people to be respectful.

"Our goal is to open a window between faraway places and cultures that allows people to interact freely with one another," the group, which also has installed similar exhibits between Vilnius, Lithuania and Lubin, Poland, wrote.

'A middle finger doesn't hurt me' 

On Tuesday morning, before The Portal was shut down again, crowds on both sides of the portals were mostly behaved.

Some gave a friendly wave or made heart signs with their hands. Most took a selfie.

But on the Dublin side, a man stood behind a crowd of school children in uniform and extended two middle fingers.

Killian Sundermann, a 30-year-old from Dublin who was in New York on a visit, held his phone to his ear as he waved and spoke to his girlfriend watching from the Dublin side.

Mr Sundermann questioned the wisdom of placing the Dublin screen in such a busy stretch of that city's downtown.

"I don't think you could have picked a worse spot for late-night drinking crowds," he said. "I don't know what I would have done as a young lad walking past it after I've had a few too many pints."

Joe Perez, a 46-year-old Manhattan resident who held up his sizeable pit bull Virgil for the Dublin crowd to see, shrugged off the bad behaviour.

"No one is getting hurt. It's fine. It's all peace," he said. "A middle finger doesn't hurt me."

Nearby, Lynn Rakos waved and blew a kiss toward the screen.

AP