Last year, Twitter rolled out what it calls Circle, a feature that lets you designate close friends among people you follow, and lets them see more private posts you make on the platform. Though recently, it appears that a bug on the bird app has made it so that these supposedly private posts for your inner circle are not so private after all. Said bug has resulted in some Twitter Circle posts appearing in the For You tab of complete strangers.
As TechCrunch reports, there is a mix of these supposedly private posts appearing on the timelines of both those who follow you and complete strangers alike. As Theo Browne, a former engineer at Twitch, explains, “Twitter seems to be outright failing to filter out private content before serving it to users”. He was also able to prove the working hypothesis by having a post designated as one for his Twitter Circle not only being seen, but also liked, by someone who he doesn’t follow.
Confirmed someone I'm not even following was able to see a private Twitter Circle tweet (thank you @TheSahilDev)
This hurts trust in the platform a lot. Should be top priority @TwitterEng pic.twitter.com/BCYPkikJ2p
— Theo – t3.gg (@t3dotgg) April 8, 2023
It is worth noting that the other person does follow him. But that would still beyond the limits that the feature promises if Browne did not designate said person as part of his Circle.
Incidentally, the report notes that as a feature, Twitter Circle has been buggy for months. Previously, one bug that manifested was that posts made using the feature did not have the green banner that signifies that it was a private tweet. Which is a minor complaint compared to what is supposed to be a private post making its way to public view.
All that being said, it remains to be seen when, or indeed if, any of these will be fixed. Platform owner Elon Musk has famously laid off the majority of its work force, and it has been a rocky ride for the bird app ever since.
(Source: TechCrunch, Theo Browne / Twitter)
