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Well this is awkward.
A Twitter bug is making it appear as if accounts have liked tweets they currently haven't — including those 240-character missives from our very own commander-in-chief.
That's right, your friends browsing their timelines might see your name next to an official Twitter notification saying you smashed that Like button on something you actually find repulsive.
SEE ALSO:Twitter tests suggestions on people to unfollow for when your timeline is too much"[This] is a bug involving Likes that we're working to fix," explained a Twitter spokesperson over email. "This issue is affecting numerous accounts."
"[When] someone Likes and then unlikes a Tweet it could appear with the social proof 'Liked by'."
The bug appears to be specifically confined to the timeline, and thankfully has not spread to the list of tweets you liked that appears on your profile page. Say, for example, you saw that your staunchly liberal friend liked a tweet from Trump. Navigating to their account page and clicking on the "Likes" tab would not display the tweet in question.
Still though, how many people are actually double-checking that when Twitter says you liked something you actually liked it?
Here's a more detailed explanation from a Twitter spokesperson: "[What's] happening is when someone Likes and then unlikes a Tweet it could appear with the social proof 'Liked by'. So these people did indeed like these Tweets at some point but then unliked them."
In other words, say you accidentally fat-fingered the Like button on a specific tweet, then realized your mistake and quickly undid it. The fact that you hit Like on the tweet could still show up in other people's timelines.
This has led some on the platform to speculate that the bug is an intentional ploy by Twitter to gin up engagement.
"Okay, so I've seen a lot of people upset because their followers are liking DJT's stuff," wrote one Twitter user. "This is a thing that Twitter is now doing to attempt to make us 'get out of our bubbles.' Oh, and they totally didn't like his tweets."
Tweet may have been deleted
The suspicion is not totally out of the blue, as just last month the Washington Postreported that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is "experimenting with features that would promote alternative viewpoints in Twitter’s timeline to address misinformation and reduce 'echo chambers.'”
Again, though, Twitter says the bogus Likes are just a bug.
A follow up email to Twitter confirmed that this error is also happening with accounts other than the president's, although specifics as to how widespread the bug is were not provided.
Regardless, this should serve to remind you that not everything on social media is exactly what it seems. Which, hey, maybe that's a good thing.
UPDATE: Sept. 5, 2018, 9:07 a.m. PDT: This story has been updated to confirm that additional accounts, not just Donald Trump's, are being impacted by this bug.
UPDATE: Sept. 5, 2018, 9:55 a.m. PDT: Twitter clarified that this bug only happens if someone first likes, then unlikes, a tweet.
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TopicsSocial MediaTwitterDonald Trump