Twitter 'following' service hit by bug

Social networking site Twitter has been hit by a bug, causing users of the service to lose their followers.

Social networking site Twitter has been hit by a bug, causing users of the service to lose their followers.

"Follower/following numbers are currently at 0. We're aware and this too should shortly be resolved," the company said on its blog today.

The problem began when a flaw was uncovered that allowed people to force others to "follow" them on the site.

By tweeting "accept" followed by the Twitter user's name, people could force other users to be added to their list of followers.

READ MORE

It was reported that many users were taking advantage of the bug to force celebrities to follow them.

Company spokesman Sean Garrett told technology website CNET that the bug was "unfortunately" real, and that the company was "focused on fixing it now (and) hope to know a lot more about the specifics once that's done."

An embarrassing glitch on Facebook last Wednesday meant private chats between some users were viewable by other users. The company has faced growing criticism over sloppy privacy protection.

Techcrunch, a blog, first reported a bug related to a feature on the fast-growing social network site that allows a user to see how their profile will appear to other users. Facebook says it has fixed the problem.