If you were on Twitter sharing your deepest secrets with the closest of your followers, stop because your secrets may not be much secret anymore. Apparently, some Twitter users are reporting a bug with “Twitter Circle,” where their tweets are showing up for others outside the circle.
Twitter Circle, introduced last year, was Twitter’s take on Instagram’s Closed Friends story. So, when selected, your tweets would only be shared with a “smaller crowd,” basically only with the followers the user has chosen. So, no one else can see them, and only those selected can interact or reply to the tweet. However, those Twitter Circle tweets do not seem to be private and can be seen by others on their algorithmic “For You” feed.
While the tweets posted within a Circle should only be visible to users within it, several Twitter users have recently reported a bug with Circle tweets appearing in their “For You” tab, which suggests algorithm-based tweets. These tweets are reportedly from individuals who these users do not follow.
As seen by a reporter at TechCrunch, while the tweet appears on the For You tab, clicking on it makes it disappear. Also, the retweet button for the tweet remains disabled. As per a user whose tweet was seen by the reporter, the tweet was indeed posted to the Circle.
Since the Circle tweets are showing up on the For You feed, the tweets could be visible to many other users except your followers since the timeline caters tweets from other users as well.
There was another issue with the Twitter Circle: the green circle does not show for users. So, users were not aware if the tweet was posted in the Circle or if it was meant for everyone.
So far, the cause of this issue remains unknown. Neither Twitter nor Musk has acknowledged the issue
Twitter recently open-sourced its recommendation algorithm for the “For You” tab, opening up for feedback from users.