Twitter has issued a statement on a bug that exposed private tweets to strangers through its Circle feature, a month after the issue was first discovered by users. According to an email seen by The Guardian, Twitter has attributed the exposure to a “security incident that occurred earlier this year” but claims it was “immediately fixed.” The company also apologized for the incident and promised to protect user privacy.
Following news of the exposure, some speculated that Twitter failed to filter Circle tweets out of its recommendation algorithm. However, Twitter, which has not operated a communications department since Elon Musk’s first round of layoffs, did not initially acknowledge the issue.
Twitter has faced technical issues since Musk’s takeover of the company in October, which has included a significant reduction of the workforce and senior leadership in its technical teams. The company has suffered several outages and has faced confusion over feature rollouts and removals.
Despite these challenges, Twitter has continued to prioritize user privacy. The company has pledged to improve its security and protect user data, which is especially important as social media users increasingly seek to protect their personal information. Twitter has also introduced new privacy features and policies, such as allowing users to control who can reply to their tweets and updating its data-sharing policies.
As Twitter continues to navigate the challenges of being a social media platform, it remains committed to ensuring that its users feel safe and secure while using the service.
