Leaked Twitter Source Code Was Available Online for Months
A legal filing revealed parts of Twitter's source code leaked online and was available publicly for several months.
As The New York Times(Opens in a new window) reports, the leaked code was posted on Microsoft's GitHub code hosting service. Twitter filed a DMCA takedown request(Opens in a new window) in order to get the files removed last Friday, which GitHub complied with the same day. The takedown request describes the original copyrighted work being infringed as "proprietary source code for Twitter's platform and internal tools."
Twitter also filed a subpoena(Opens in a new window) (PDF) with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordering GitHub to reveal the identity of the person who uploaded the files as well as anyone who downloaded the leaked code. The concern for Twitter is that hackers may try to use the code from the platform and tools to discover ways to circumvent security measures and steal user data.
An internal investigation is underway at Twitter, but executives were apparently only made aware of the leak recently. It's believed that whoever leaked the code left Twitter last year, meaning it's possible the individual is someone Elon Musk fired after taking control of the company in October.
Earlier this month Elon Musk stated in a tweet(Opens in a new window) that Twitter's code used to recommend tweets will become open source on March 31. He also admitted(Opens in a new window) that the algorithm is "overly complex & not fully understood internally," and expects the code transparency to be "incredibly embarrassing at first." However, he hopes it will lead to a "rapid improvement in recommendation quality" and a way to earn trust with users.
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