Twitter confirms Circle tweets temporarily were not private
Twitter revealed that a security flaw caused Circle tweets — posts that are only sent to a select group of trusted pals — to go public. The bug was first discovered by sonucheema in early April, but the platform verified it today in an email issued to Twitter Circle users.
"In April 2023, a security incident may have allowed users outside of your Twitter Circle to see tweets that should have otherwise been limited to the Circle to which you were posting," according to the email. Twitter states that the bug has been repaired and that the team has determined what caused it.
For months, Twitter Circle has been problematic, which is concerning for a service that users use to tweet things they don't want all of their followers to see. When we first reported on the problem last month, many users complained that individuals outside of their Circle were like their private tweets; one user even claimed that she uploaded nude photographs on her Circle, which slipped through the cracks and appeared for undesired eyes.
Most of the time, Circle tweets appeared in the For You timeline to users who followed the poster but were not in their Circle. Others noticed that their Circle tweets were reaching those who did not follow them.
Aside from privacy concerns, certain Circle tweets continue to appear without the green flag indicating that they are exclusively viewable to a small audience. The retweet button will be greyed out, indicating that these tweets aren't public. These tweets are still only reaching their intended Circles, so it's not necessarily a privacy issue, but it can be a confusing user experience (personally, I've fielded a few messages from friends who were surprised I was tweeting so openly about which neighbourhood I live in — I had to reassure them that the post was private despite the lack of the green banner). TechCrunch first reported on that particular flaw in February, and it has yet to be resolved.
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