A recent article in The New York Times reports that the source code for Twitter, purchased by Elon Musk late last year, was leaked on the Internet and uploaded to the GitHub platform. Currently, the link to the code is no longer available, after the platform removed it after receiving a copyright request from Twitter.
The newspaper notes that Twitter’s source code may have been public for months before it was finally removed by GitHub. According to The New York Times, the GitHub account listed in the request sent by Twitter reportedly made a single code contribution in early January.
The profile name is “FreeSpeechEnthusiast”. A clear allusion to Musk, who, in the past, claimed to be a “free speech absolutist”.
Twitter would thus face a serious problem that other large companies, such as Riot Games, have already gone through. The social network’s source code (basically its DNA) could reveal vulnerabilities to any attacker, and could even expose users’ private data, in addition to allowing its competitors to see the inner workings of Twitter, which could be a major long-term disadvantage for Musk’s social network.
Suspicions would now fall on some of the thousands of employees laid off by Twitter late last year (which would not be the only round of layoffs carried out under Elon Musk’s tenure). Twitter had planned to publish this week “all the code used to recommend tweets”, although the code that the company will make public is only a part of the total source code of the social network.
Twitter is reportedly going through the worst streak of its existence under Musk’s leadership. In just one month, the social network crashed several times, leaving thousands of users around the world without access or unable to view images or link content.
Some of the links added in the article are part of affiliate campaigns and may represent benefits for Softonic.
