Twitter, the popular social media platform, has faced a setback after parts of its computer Source Code were leaked online, according to court filings. The leak is the latest hurdle the company has encountered since being taken over by Elon Musk’s company for $44 billion at the end of last year.
Subpoena Issued to Github
On March 24, Twitter issued a subpoena to GitHub, a software collaboration platform, after a user identified as “FreeSpeechEnthusiast” shared extracts of Twitter’s source code without permission, according to the court documents. Twitter’s legal team stated that the goal of the subpoena was to identify the individual responsible for disclosing the Source Code. The filings were made with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
GitHub confirmed to CNBC that it complied with Twitter’s request and removed the Source Code the same day. A spokesperson for the company stated that it publicly discloses all DMCA takedowns, which are instances where content is removed from a website at the request of a copyright holder, in the interest of transparency.
Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the incident.
Elon’s thoughts on The Matter
Elon Musk, who has been very vocal about his views on social media, previously stated that Twitter would open-source the code used to recommend tweets on March 31. Musk expects people to find “silly” problems with the code, and he believes that providing code transparency will be “incredibly embarrassing” initially.
GitHub’s DMCA request showed that the company removed “proprietary source code for Twitter’s platform and internal tools.” It is unclear if the code used to recommend tweets was part of the leak.
Another setback for Twitter
Twitter has been under a lot of scrutiny in recent months, particularly after former President Donald Trump was banned from the platform following the Capitol Hill riot in January. The company has also faced criticism for its handling of misinformation, hate speech, and other forms of online abuse.
In conclusion, while it remains to be seen how significant the leak is, the incident underscores the need for companies to take their cybersecurity seriously. As more of our lives move online, ensuring that our personal information is protected is critical, and companies like Twitter must do their part to keep their users safe.
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/twitter-parts-of-its-source-code-leaked-online/
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