Some parts of Twitter鈥檚 source code 鈥� the fundamental computer code on which the social network runs 鈥� were leaked online, the social media company said in a legal filing that was first reported by The New York Times.
According to the legal document, first filed with the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California on Friday, Twitter had asked GitHub, an internet hosting service for software development, to take down the code where it was posted. The platform complied and said the content had been disabled, according to the filing.
Twitter, based in San Francisco, noted in the filing that the postings infringe on copyrights held by Twitter.
The company also asked the court to identify the alleged individual or group that posted the information without Twitter鈥檚 authorization. It鈥檚 seeking names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, social media profile data and IP addresses associated with the user account 鈥淔reeSpeechEnthusiast鈥� which is suspected of being behind the leak. The name is an apparent reference to Twitter鈥檚 billionaire owner, Elon Musk, who described himself as a free speech absolutist.
It is difficult to know if the leak poses an immediate cybersecurity risk for users, said Lukasz OIejnik, an independent cybersecurity researcher and consultant, but he did say that breach underscores internal turbulence at the company.
鈥淲hile this is the internal source code, including internal tools, the biggest immediate risk seems to be reputational,鈥� Olejnik said 鈥淚t highlights the broader problem of Big Tech, which is insider risk,鈥� and could undermine trust between Twitter鈥檚 employees or internal teams, he said.
Musk had promised earlier this month that Twitter would open source all the code used to recommend tweets on March 31, saying that people 鈥渨ill discover many silly things, but we鈥檒l patch issues as soon as they鈥檙e found!鈥� He added that being transparent about Twitter鈥檚 code will be 鈥渋ncredibly embarrassing at first鈥� but will result in 鈥渞apid improvement in recommendation quality.鈥�
The leak creates another challenge for Musk, who bought Twitter in October for $44 billion and took the company private. Twitter has since been engulfed in chaos, with massive layoffs and an exodus of advertisers fearful of exposure on the platform to looser rules on potentially inflammatory posts.
Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission is probing Musk鈥檚 mass layoffs at Twitter and trying to obtain his internal communications as part of ongoing oversight into the social media company鈥檚 privacy and cybersecurity practices, according to documents described in a congressional report.
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By Anne D鈥檌nnocenzio
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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