Updated Mar 27, 2023 - Technology

Court filings: Twitter says parts of source code were leaked online

Rebecca Falconer

Elon Musk Twitter account seen on Mobile with Elon Musk in the background on screen, seen in this photo illustration. On 19 February 2023 in Brussels, Belgium. — An illustration of Twitter's logo seen on a mobile device with the company's CEO Elon Musk in the background. Photo illustration: Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Parts of a Twitter code used to run the social network were leaked online, the company said in a court filing first reported by the New York Times on Sunday.

Driving the news: Twitter said in a Friday filing with the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California against GitHub, a Microsoft-owned software collaboration platform, that the leak included the "[p]roprietary source code for Twitter's platform and internal tools."

The San Francisco-based company said that the code was shared without permission by a poster identified as "FreeSpeechEnthusiast — a name that's an apparent reference to Elon Musk's public pledges to a free speech-first Twitter.
Twitter also sought a subpoena seeking to have GitHub disclose information in regards to the leak.

Meanwhile, GitHub has since complied with Twitter's takedown request, according to a post on its website.

What they're saying: A spokesperson for GitHub said in an emailed statement early Monday that the company does not generally comment on decisions to remove content.

"However, in the interest of transparency, we share every DMCA takedown request publicly," the spokesperson added.
Representatives for Twitter did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

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Editor's note: This article has been updated with additional details throughout.

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Court filings: Twitter says parts of source code were leaked online

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