Riesman did not panic, but did not want to impose his “spicy” photos on people. “It was, ‘Oh, God, am I pushing my naked body in front of a bunch of people?’” he said. “I’ve curated my Circles for people I thought wouldn’t mind, but the general public doesn’t need to see me in my birthday suit.”
Melissa Ingle, a senior data scientist at Twitter until CEO Elon Musk launched a round of layoffs in November 2022, called all of this “a huge breach of confidentiality.” Ingle added: “Your circle is your trusted group of friends, and seeing those posts outside of that group suggests that the algorithm lacks basic functionality.”
For Riesman, the idea that the functionality failed isn’t exactly a surprise. “I long ago gave up on the idea that everything I post online will remain secret permanently,” he said. “I have prepared for moments like this in my head. And it didn’t faze me.” Riesman told him cheep about the incident “was more of a public service announcement for people who really trust that Twitter Circles is a semi-private space, or at least a controlled public space.” Riesman said he has a lot of friends who are trans but unknown who post about their gender in Circles and could be identified by mistake.
How the circle problem occurred and how it was solved are pertinent questions. An email to Twitter’s press department asking why the privacy breach occurred received the now-traditional automated response from a poop emoji.
Unfortunately, the Circles bug is part of the online way of life, according to Ellen Walker, who studies Internet storytelling and narrative-curated digital culture at London’s Royal College of Art. “As quickly as closed digital spaces can be cured, they can be removed in an instant, whether by virtue of technological improvements, increased audience engagement, or, in the case of Twitter Circles’ innovation, a serious misstep. by the restraining forces. ,” she said.
The impact is significant. “It would be one thing if this feature was simply removed and Twitter told its users, but for it to happen unexpectedly without warning feels like a betrayal,” Ingle said. “Unfortunately, with Elon Musk, these types of things are increasingly likely to happen due to the severe staff cuts and inexperience that he has introduced.” (Musk has fired or let go of significantly more than half of the company’s total number of employees since he took office in October 2022.)
Moussa also blames Musk’s leadership. “It seems like the constant tinkering with whatever they want the For You algorithm to be has just screwed this up beyond belief,” he said. “This portends greater security issues across the board. If you keep an account locked, what guarantee do you have that it will stay locked? It’s a gap. The trust is gone. No one can be sure again that this shit isn’t going to blow up completely in their faces.”
As for Riesman, he seemed more optimistic. “I think there is a part of us that is looking forward to this now,” he said. “All of us who are still stuck here [on Twitter] I know the place is falling apart.”
