A section of Twitter’s key source code was recently leaked online via GitHub, according to reports from the New York Times. The code was later taken down after the social media platform filed a DMCA request. GitHub has published online this request online and notes that the leaked information included “proprietary source code for Twitter’s platform and internal tools.”
The NYT notes that the source code maybe have been visible for everyone for months before being removed — the GitHub profile associated with the DMCA takedown lists a single (non-public) code contribution from early January. The account’s name is listed as “FreeSpeechEnthusiast,” in an apparent reference to Twitter CEO Elon Musk calling himself a “free speech absolutist” in the past.
Proprietary source code is often among a company’s most closely guarded trade secrets. Making it public risks revealing its software’s vulnerabilities to would-be attackers, and can also give competitors an advantage by being able to see non-public internal workings. Source code has been a common target for hackers, including attacks on other companies like Microsoft, and the Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red.
As well as asking GitHub to take down the source code, Twitter submitted a court filing in California to find the person responsible and get information on any other GitHub users who may have downloaded the data. Reports from Bloomberg indicate that the filing asked the court to order GitHub to reveal users’ names, addresses, telephone numbers, emails, social media profiles, and IP addresses.
GitHub has not responded to questions about whether it would comply with Twitter’s request to supply identifying information, and an email sent to Twitter’s official press address received an auto-generated poop emoji in response. (Twitter’s press office was disbanded shortly after Musk’s acquisition.)
Twitter executives suspect that an employee who left the company last year may be responsible for the source code leak. But that doesn’t exactly narrow things down given Elon Musk fired many staff members shortly after taking control of the social media network. Fears that departing employees might attempt to sabotage the business on their way out have reportedly led Twitter to implement code freezes ahead of layoffs.
Twitter has been through a turbulent time since its acquisition by Musk last year. The Tesla CEO, who paid $44 billion for Twitter last year but now says it’s worth just $20 billion.
