Twitter bug mislabels retweets on Android devices

This new Twitter bug makes it look like retweets from unknown users are appearing on one’s timeline.

FILE - This April 26, 2017, file photo shows the Twitter app icon on a mobile phone in Philadelphia. According to a study released on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, a tiny fraction of Twitter users spread the vast majority of fake news in 2016, with conservatives and older people sharing misinformation more. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) (AP)

A bug on Twitter majorly affecting Android users, confused the twitteraties by making them view retweets from random people on their timeline, the media reported.

Twitter confirmed that the bug was mislabeling the "social proof" tag on retweets because of which users were actually viewing posts from people they did follow -- who appeared unfamiliar due to the glitch, TechCrunch reported on Friday.

The "Social Proof" tag is part of the retweet that tells users who, among the people they follow, had retweeted the post in question.

"Twitter says the retweets that showed up were actually tweeted by someone the affected users knew. The engineers are aware of the problem and are working to fix this now. The bug has been live for a few days, Twitter also confirmed," TechCrunch added.

The company's @TwitterSupport account has not yet replied to the affected users who took to the platform to notify and complain about the problem.

"Until the bug is fixed, Twitter users who don't like the content of the seemingly random retweets can tap on the down arrow on the right side of the tweet to tell Twitter it wants to see less content like this," the report noted.