On Sunday, Twitter stated in a legal filing that it had detected leaked portions of its source code – the essential computer code on which the social network operates – online. The New York Times initially reported on this matter.
According to a legal document, Twitter requested GitHub to remove the code that was shared on their platform.. According to the filing, the platform complied and confirmed that they had disabled the content.
GitHub agreed to immediately remove the content after Twitter sent over a copyright infringement notice, though it’s unclear how long the code was online.
One concern tied to the leak is the code includes security vulnerabilities that would give hackers the chance to steal user data or take down the site
According to two people briefed on the investigation, the executives in charge of the probe only became aware of the leak recently. The internal investigation concluded that the individual who published the code had left the company last year.
The leaker appeared to go by the name “FreeSpeechEnthusiast” on GitHub, Twitter’s legal filing reportedly said.
Twitter also asked the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California to identify the person or persons who had posted Twitter’s source code on systems operated by GitHub without Twitter’s authorisation. Twitter, headquartered in San Francisco, emphasized that the postings had violated its copyrights.
More challenges for Elon Musk
Billionaire Elon Musk faces more challenges due to the leak after he purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October last year and made the company private. After Musk took over, the company experienced chaos, as it conducted massive layoffs and advertisers fled.
In the meantime, the Federal Trade Commission is investigating Musk’s mass layoffs at Twitter and attempting to obtain his internal communications. This is part of the ongoing oversight into the social media company’s privacy and cybersecurity practices, as described in documents featured in a congressional report.