Twitter Circles bug has made semi-private tweets public

Twitter Circles is leaking, with users reporting that posts meant for a limited audience are instead being pushed out to millions of strangers. You should always think twice before you tweet, but it’s a good idea to be extra cautious now.

Introduced in 2022, Twitter Circles is a feature that (when it’s working) allows you to restrict certain tweets to a carefully curated list of pre-approved followers. It’s a useful tool for people who would like to vent about their partner, scream about K-pop idols, or share some tasteful nudes, but don’t necessarily want their ramblings and/or tiddies seen by the wider public.

Unfortunately, an apparent bug has resulted in Twitter Circles tweets appearing in the For You feeds of users who weren’t given access to them. In some cases, these users weren’t even following the original poster. It’s an unexpected and alarming violation of privacy for anyone who trusted Twitter’s assurances that only approved Twitter Circle members can see those posts.

Mashable reached out to Twitter for comment and received the prerequisite poop emoji auto-response. Twitter CEO Elon Musk is a 51-year-old man.

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Though they can be viewed and liked, Twitter Circle posts still can’t be retweeted or replied to by anyone who isn’t in said circle. It’s a small comfort, but at least it isn’t easy for strangers to spread your leaked Twitter Circle tweets further.

Some Twitter users have reported that if you post a tweet thread to Twitter Circles, people outside your Circle who it might be pushed to can only see the first tweet. As such, it’s a good idea to tweet your semi-private Twitter Circles posts in threads until the bug is fixed — provided you want to continue trusting the feature.

An even better idea to protect yourself would be to not tweet potentially sensitive information at all. Yes, it is less fun and leaves us with one less space in which we can vent some of the pent-up pressure of modern existence. But even when there are no bugs, it only takes one Tweet Circles traitor to take a screenshot.