Issue #203: Retweet Count Incorrect for a Retweeted Tweet

I am having trouble getting the accurate retweet count for a tweet. Assume you retweet something that is very popular and that tweet has already been retweeted by others 100+ times. The original tweet being retweeted has an ID of 1, and then my retweet is created with an ID of 2. When inspecting my tweet (2) using the REST API, it has the original tweet (1) nested within it. The original tweet has a retweet_count of 100+, which makes sense. However, my tweet (2) also has a retweet count of 100+. This seems incorrect, because no one has retweeted my tweet at this point. If a tweet that was retweeted always reports the retweet_count of it's parent, it's impossible to track the success of a retweet for a particular user.

Here is a real life example. The original tweet has an ID of 156588556205301760, and the retweet has an ID of 156595358879858688. 156595358879858688 was not retweeted 100+ times, and we want to know how many times 156595358879858688 was retweeted to help track analytics for user 16812130. I think that the retweet_count on 156595358879858688 should reflect how many times 156595358879858688 was retweeted, not 156588556205301760.

  1. statuses/show/156595358879858688.json
  1. {
  2.   "coordinates": null,
  3.   "truncated": false,
  4.   "retweeted_status":  {
  5.     "coordinates": null,
  6.     "truncated": false,
  7.     "place": null,
  8.     "geo": null,
  9.     "in_reply_to_user_id": null,
  10.     "retweet_count": "100+",
  11.     "favorited": false,
  12.     "in_reply_to_status_id_str": null,
  13.     "user":  {
  14.       "contributors_enabled": false,
  15.       "lang": "en",
  16.       "profile_background_image_url_https": "https://si0.twimg.com/images/themes/theme1/bg.png",
  17.       "favourites_count": 0,
  18.       "profile_text_color": "000000",
  19.       "protected": false,
  20.       "location": "",
  21.       "is_translator": false,
  22.       "profile_background_image_url": "http://a0.twimg.com/images/themes/theme1/bg.png",
  23.       "profile_image_url_https": "https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/1373811170/TWITTERESPN_normal.jpg",
  24.       "name": "The Fake ESPN",
  25.       "profile_link_color": "FF0000",
  26.       "url": null,
  27.       "utc_offset": -21600,
  28.       "description": "We write headlines, you retweet them! \r\nNot any way affiliated with ESPN, except for the whole sports thing.\r\n",
  29.       "listed_count": 763,
  30.       "profile_background_color": "f0f1f5",
  31.       "statuses_count": 1723,
  32.       "following": null,
  33.       "profile_background_tile": false,
  34.       "followers_count": 117822,
  35.       "profile_image_url": "http://a0.twimg.com/profile_images/1373811170/TWITTERESPN_normal.jpg",
  36.       "default_profile": false,
  37.       "geo_enabled": false,
  38.       "created_at": "Sun May 29 18:18:47 +0000 2011",
  39.       "profile_sidebar_fill_color": "FFF7CC",
  40.       "show_all_inline_media": false,
  41.       "follow_request_sent": null,
  42.       "notifications": null,
  43.       "friends_count": 19,
  44.       "profile_sidebar_border_color": "F2E195",
  45.       "screen_name": "TheFakeESPN",
  46.       "id_str": "307478701",
  47.       "verified": false,
  48.       "id": 307478701,
  49.       "default_profile_image": false,
  50.       "profile_use_background_image": false,
  51.       "time_zone": "Central Time (US & Canada)"
  52.     },
  53.     "in_reply_to_screen_name": null,
  54.     "created_at": "Tue Jan 10 04:09:55 +0000 2012",
  55.     "in_reply_to_user_id_str": null,
  56.     "retweeted": false,
  57.     "source": "<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id409789998?mt=12" rel="nofollow">Twitter for Mac</a>",
  58.     "id_str": "156588556205301760",
  59.     "in_reply_to_status_id": null,
  60.     "id": 156588556205301760,
  61.     "contributors": null,
  62.     "text": "To anyone drinking every time Brent Musburger says "Honey Badger," you're probably reading this tomorrow afternoon with an awful hangover."
  63.   },
  64.   "place": null,
  65.   "geo": null,
  66.   "in_reply_to_user_id": null,
  67.   "retweet_count": "100+",
  68.   "favorited": false,
  69.   "in_reply_to_status_id_str": null,
  70.   "user":  {
  71.     "contributors_enabled": false,
  72.     "lang": "en",
  73.     "profile_background_image_url_https": "https://si0.twimg.com/images/themes/theme6/bg.gif",
  74.     "favourites_count": 8,
  75.     "profile_text_color": "333333",
  76.     "protected": false,
  77.     "location": "Woods Cross, UT",
  78.     "is_translator": false,
  79.     "profile_background_image_url": "http://a1.twimg.com/images/themes/theme6/bg.gif",
  80.     "profile_image_url_https": "https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/1752804340/IMAG0084_normal.jpg",
  81.     "name": "James t Cella",
  82.     "profile_link_color": "FF3300",
  83.     "url": "http://twitter.com/",
  84.     "utc_offset": -25200,
  85.     "description": "Go utes.",
  86.     "listed_count": 4,
  87.     "profile_background_color": "709397",
  88.     "statuses_count": 330,
  89.     "following": null,
  90.     "profile_background_tile": false,
  91.     "followers_count": 43,
  92.     "profile_image_url": "http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/1752804340/IMAG0084_normal.jpg",
  93.     "default_profile": false,
  94.     "geo_enabled": true,
  95.     "created_at": "Thu Oct 16 19:11:14 +0000 2008",
  96.     "profile_sidebar_fill_color": "A0C5C7",
  97.     "show_all_inline_media": true,
  98.     "follow_request_sent": null,
  99.     "notifications": null,
  100.     "friends_count": 87,
  101.     "profile_sidebar_border_color": "86A4A6",
  102.     "screen_name": "jamescella",
  103.     "id_str": "16812130",
  104.     "verified": false,
  105.     "id": 16812130,
  106.     "default_profile_image": false,
  107.     "profile_use_background_image": true,
  108.     "time_zone": "Mountain Time (US & Canada)"
  109.   },
  110.   "in_reply_to_screen_name": null,
  111.   "created_at": "Tue Jan 10 04:36:57 +0000 2012",
  112.   "in_reply_to_user_id_str": null,
  113.   "retweeted": false,
  114.   "source": "<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/download/ipad" rel="nofollow">Twitter for iPad</a>",
  115.   "id_str": "156595358879858688",
  116.   "in_reply_to_status_id": null,
  117.   "id": 156595358879858700,
  118.   "contributors": null,
  119.   "text": "RT @TheFakeESPN: To anyone drinking every time Brent Musburger says "Honey Badger," you're probably reading this tomorrow afternoon with ..."
  120. }

Updates

  • The current behavior appears to be correct. Because retweets are not themselves retweeted (the original Tweet is), the count should reflect the count of the original Tweet. Admittedly this makes auditing difficult, but so does the fact that we don't return intermediate retweets (if you retweet a retweet, the retweeted_status points to the original Tweet).