Twitter source code leaked via GitHub

The leak, which was revealed due to a DMCA takedown notice, contained proprietary source code

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Olivia Powell
03/29/2023

Part of the source code for social media site Twitter has been leaked via source code repository GitHub, according to a DMCA takedown request.

The DMCA request stated that the code leaked included “proprietary source code for Twitter's platform and internal tools”. Following the DMCA request, the code was taken down.

The source code was leaked by a user under the screen name ‘FreeSpeechEnthusiast’. It is unclear how long the source code was available for, however, the account has been active since at least January 2023.

The leak was originally reported by the New York Times which noted that Twitter was attempting to identify the user who originally leaked the code and those who downloaded it.

In the DMCA takedown notice issued to Github, Twitter asked the source code repository to “preserve and provide copies of any related upload/download/access history (and any contact info, IP addresses, or other session info related to same), and any associated logs related to this repo or any forks thereof, before removing all the infringing content from Github”.

GitHub has not yet stated whether it will provide this information to Twitter. When contacted for comment, Twitter’s press office responded with an automated reply.