Software bug emerges on Twitter site

The bug allowed anyone to force another user to follow them on Twitter, giving the site its first  setback in several months.

The bug was first revealed by a Turkish man who wanted to tell his friends on Twitter about a band,  “Accept,” that he enjoyed listening to.

When the man typed “Accept pwns” into the update box on Twitter, he noticed that a user by the name of @pwns was now following him on the site. (“Pwns” is a slang term used online to say that you “own” or have “conquered” something.)

It didn’t take long for the bug to make its way across the Internet as several technology blogs, including Gizmodo and Mashable, wrote very simple explanations telling readers how to take advantage of the security hole.

Twitter alerted its users of the bug several hours later with a notice on a company blog. The company said it had “identified and resolved” the bug .

Although Twitter spent most of the day trying to remedy the security flaw, many users’ follower and following lists were set to zero in an effort to make the lists accurate.
Twitter is still working to fix users’ inaccurate follow lists.