Twitter has suffered a major exposure of its intellectual property as parts of the company’s source code were leaked online, according to a legal filing. This rare and significant event occurred as the social media platform attempted to address its technical issues and turn around its business under the ownership of Elon Musk.
In response to the leak, Twitter issued a copyright infringement notice to GitHub, an online platform for software developers where the code was posted, and the code was promptly taken down. It is not clear how long the code had been public, but it appeared to have been accessible for at least several months. Twitter has requested that GitHub identifies the person responsible for sharing the code and any individuals who downloaded it.
An internal investigation by Twitter executives suggests that the culprit responsible for the leak left the company in the previous year, according to two people briefed on the matter.
Since Musk acquired Twitter in October for $44 billion, the company has experienced significant upheaval. About 75% of its 7,500 employees have either resigned or been laid off, resulting in financial damage. Musk recently informed employees in an email that Twitter’s value had declined to approximately $20 billion, more than a 50% drop from his initial purchase price.
Neither Musk nor GitHub has made any public comments regarding the leaked code. GitHub declined to comment on the decision to remove the code but published Twitter’s takedown request on its website. Twitter has launched an investigation into the matter to identify the person responsible for the leak and to address any further issues arising from it.
