Twitter’s Source Code Leaked Online, Prompting Lawsuit to Identify Leaker

A Twitter logo hangs outside the company's offices in San Francisco on Dec. 19, 2022. Jeff Chiu/AP Photo

Parts of Twitter’s source code have been leaked, and the social media platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk is seeking information on the person responsible, according to legal filings.

The March 24 document filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, indicates that “various excerpts” of Twitter’s source code, which is used to run the company online, were posted on GitHub by a user named “FreeSpeechEnthusiast.”

Twitter said the leak included the “proprietary source code for Twitter’s platform and internal tools.”

Github, which is a Microsoft-owned platform for sharing code for software development, said it took down the code at Twitter’s request.

Twitter has asked for a subpoena to force GitHub to disclose who was behind the leak.

“GitHub does not generally comment on decisions to remove content,” a GitHub spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “However, in the interest of transparency, we share every DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] takedown request publicly.” the spokesperson added, while providing a link to the request.

The DMCA is a law dating back to 1998 that’s aimed at protecting copyrighted material on the internet.

Twitter officials didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk leaves the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco on Jan. 24, 2023. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Musk to Reveal Recommendation Algorithms

The leak comes after Musk said he would make public the social media giant’s algorithms that are used to recommend content.

“Twitter will open source all code used to recommend tweets on March 31st,” he wrote in a March 17 post.

The move to disclose the algorithms is unprecedented, as they’re usually closely guarded trade secrets.

Social media algorithms can connect users with various people or posts or other relevant content.

Critics have warned that these algorithms can be used to promote certain ideologies or viewpoints over others.

Musk’s decision to release Twitter’s recommendation algorithm follows a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee probe into the issue led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Cruz has warned that recommendation algorithms can impact political views and outcomes.

“In a world where 7 out of 10 Americans receive their political news from social media, the manner in which content is filtered through recommendation systems has an undeniable effect on what Americans see, think, and ultimately believe,” Cruz said in a recent letter to tech executives.

The Republican lawmaker said that such algorithms can fuel social media addiction and boost exposure to harmful content, or that they can be redirected for partisan ends.

During the last Congress, the Senate heard whistleblower testimony from a former Meta employee who revealed how social media can guide users and young children to potentially harmful or biased content.

In his announcement, Musk didn’t state whether the move was in response to Cruz’s investigation.

Joseph Lord and Reuters contributed to this report.