As Twitter features become more broken and glitched, users are becoming increasingly concerned about the stability of the platform.
It’s been about three months since Elon Musk owns Twitter, but a number of issues still plague the platform. Some people, including Musk and his Libs on his TikTok, temporarily made their accounts private and boost engagement. android user reports that they can no longer send people DMs. Others can easily see posts from people they block, raising privacy concerns. reported that. The list goes on.
One feature that may be broken is of particular concern to those who like to over-share on the internet. It’s a Twitter circle.
This summer, Twitter rolled out a Circles feature that works like Instagram’s Close Friends Stories. You can create an alternate account to add someone you trust to your circle instead of contacting them privately. When someone posts to a Circle (and you’re added to that group), a green banner will appear below the Tweet to indicate it’s a Circle Tweet. Many users are now panicking that they may have mistakenly tweeted to all their followers when they were meant to be a friend, as their tweets no longer show up with a green banner.
I’ve noticed that the green banner rarely appears when viewing other users’ Circle Tweets. Instead, they know the post has been sent to their circles because they can no longer retweet. There doesn’t seem to be a distinction if the user is already private. When I try to retweet these posts, I get a somewhat broken notification that says “Only (null) and her Twitter circle can view these tweets” and does not enter the user’s name.
Some users have tweeted that Circle tweets are public, but TechCrunch has not been able to confirm this behavior. Whether or not the tweets actually show up outside their intended audience, this disruption is enough to undermine any privacy-focused features.
Some people are tweeting a warning to their followers that they should be careful what they post on their Circle as it may not be as private as they think. Others have said they operate under the assumption that DMs may one day go public and that users shouldn’t expect privacy on Twitter at this time.
Of course, real privacy concerns arise when users do not have complete control over their audience. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, warned after his resignation:
We may not be fully there yet, but if your Twitter circle is failing like this, it’s definitely something to worry about.
There is a saying, “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.” Please ask those who remain on the Twitter staff. If it’s not broken, don’t touch it. It will almost certainly collapse in front of your eyes.
