Private tweets that are only supposed to be visible to those in users’ “Twitter Circle” have reportedly become visible to random users, raising concerns about trust and safety on the platform.
9t05Mac reports that users have recently questioned Twitter’s commitment to privacy and security after a bug in the Circle feature exposed private tweets to uninvited users on the social network. Similar to Instagram’s Close Friends feature, the Circle feature was unveiled last year and allows users to share content with a specific group of people.
Elon Musk celebrates (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The “For You” tab on Twitter, which is intended to display content based on algorithms instead of who a user follows, has received complaints from a number of users who have noticed that private Circle tweets from accounts they don’t follow appeared on the timeline. This contradicts the feature’s main objective as tweets within a Circle are supposed to be visible only to those who are part of the relevant group.
“When I noticed a tweet from someone I didn’t follow in my For You tab, I was surprised to find out it was a Circle tweet. I thought the whole point of this feature was to keep things private,” said one Twitter user.
9to5Mac and TechCrunch were the first to notice the problem, and they confirmed with an anonymous user that the affected tweet was intended for a Circle.
This privacy breach not only damages Twitter’s reputation but also might put users in danger who may have shared private information with their selected followers in the mistaken belief that it would remain anonymous. Twitter has been experiencing issues such as significant outages and bugs across the platform ever since Elon Musk acquired the business and fired several important employees, including crucial engineers.
In March, Twitter made changes to the “For You” tab, which led to more tweets from users who were not being followed by the person being shown. However, it appears that these adjustments have negatively impacted the platform’s functionality, with the Circle feature bug being one of the biggest so far.
Read more at 9to5Mac here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan