According to a court filing in California on Friday, parts of Twitter's proprietary source code were leaked online until last week. This code serves as the foundation for the web service's different features and internal tools and was posted on GitHub, which is now owned by Microsoft Corp. Twitter requested that GitHub remove the data due to copyright infringement, and GitHub complied, posting the request online. The account that uploaded the cache, FreeSpeechEnthusiast, signed up on GitHub earlier this year and appears to have uploaded only the Twitter cache.
Twitter is now attempting to identify the person behind the account, as well as the names and other information of anyone who uploaded, downloaded, or posted the data. Twitter has requested that GitHub provide the names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, social media profiles, and IP addresses of those involved, according to the filing. According to a New York Times report citing anonymous sources, the company has also launched an internal investigation into the leak.
When approached for comment by Bloomberg, GitHub declined to comment on content removal decisions and referred to its publication of Twitter's takedown request. Twitter's press email address continues to auto-respond with a poop emoji.
The release of Twitter's internal workings may make the platform more susceptible to hacking attempts. The leaker's username seems to be a jab at Elon Musk, who made a big deal about restoring free speech to the platform when he took over the company late last year.