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Parts of Twitter source code reportedly leaked, company suspects insider

Elon Musk has previously vowed to release select portions of the code the platform uses to recommend tweets, though it remains unclear whether the leaked material included that code.

Published: March 27, 2023 3:30pm

Updated: March 27, 2023 3:35pm

Select portions of Twitter's source code appeared online as part of a major leak that the company suspects an insider orchestrated.

The code appeared on GitHub, an online platform through which software developers may collaborate, according to the New York Times. Twitter demanded the platform remove the post containing the code on Friday, which GitHub promptly did.

The social media company has sought a court order from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to require that GitHub identify the code's original poster and those who downloaded the material.

The individual who released the code fragments did so using the pseudonym "FreeSpeechEnthusiast." While the company only recently learned of the leak, the post has been live for many months.

Internal investigators suspect that the leaker is most likely one of the thousands of employees who either resigned or were laid off upon Musk's takeover of the firm last year.

Musk has previously vowed to release select portions of the code the platform uses to recommend tweets, though it remains unclear whether the leaked material included that code.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.

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