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Twitter: Parts of its source code leaked online

Some parts of Twitter’s source code _ the fundamental computer code on which the social network runs _ were leaked online, the social media company said in a legal filing on Sunday that was first reported by The New York Times

Anne d'Innocenzio
Monday 27 March 2023 01:10 BST
Twitter Source Code Leak
Twitter Source Code Leak (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

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Some parts of Twitter's source code — the fundamental computer code on which the social network runs — were leaked online, the social media company said in a legal filing on Sunday that was first reported by The New York Times.

According to the legal document, filed with the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California, 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 also asked the court to identify the alleged infringer or infringers who posted Twitter’s source code on systems operated by GitHub without Twitter’s authorization.

Twitter, based in San Francisco, noted in the filing that the postings infringe copyrights held by Twitter.

The leak creates more challenges for billionaire Elon Musk, who bought Twitter last October for $44 billion and took the company private. Since then, it has been engulfed in chaos, with massive layoffs and advertisers fleeing.

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission is probing Musk’s mass layoffs at Twitter and trying to obtain his internal communications as part of ongoing oversight into the social media company’s privacy and cybersecurity practices, according to documents described in a congressional report.

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