A user named "FreeSpeechEnthusiast" had their repository containing Twitter's proprietary source code taken down by Microsoft-owned GitHub following a DCMA takedown request from Twitter. The username appears to be a dig at Twitter's owner, Elon Musk, who has been identified as a "free speech absolutist." Twitter subsequently petitioned the District Court of Northern California, asking GitHub to help identify the person(s) behind the repository by disclosing their contact information, social media profile data, and IP address(es). These events occurred shortly before March 31, when Musk was supposedly scheduled to release Twitter's recommendation algorithm as open source.
It remains unclear which specific components of Twitter's platform were disclosed on GitHub, and for how long they were available. In a blog post regarding the DCMA takedown, GitHub only indicated that it removed the repository containing "Proprietary source code for Twitter's platform and internal tools." It is currently unknown whether individuals could access the repository before it was removed. We have reached out for a statement and will provide further updates as they become available.
According to a New York Times article, Twitter's apprehension may extend beyond the leaked code on GitHub, as the company's internal investigation has reportedly revealed that the individuals responsible for the leak had departed the company last year. The same article indicates that Twitter's executives only recently became aware of the leak.
Following Musk's acquisition of the social network last year, Twitter has encountered difficulties. Recent reports suggest that Musk has lowered his valuation of Twitter to $20 billion, less than half of the $44 billion he initially paid for it. However, the New York Times article also notes that Musk informed employees of a new stock compensation program that projected Twitter's future worth at $250 billion.
To improve Twitter's financial standing, Musk has implemented drastic cost-cutting measures such as extensive layoffs and introducing a new subscription program that includes verification as a feature. However, according to Sensor Tower, an analytics firm, the service has only generated $11 million for Twitter. This amount pales compared to Twitter's Q2 2022 revenue, totaling $1.17 billion.
During a recent conference, Musk believed that users' time on Twitter is not effectively monetized. According to him, the average amount of time spent by Twitter's monthly active user base of 250 million is around half an hour daily, resulting in 120 to 130 million hours of human attention on Twitter daily. Musk found this to be a staggering amount of attention, particularly given the intelligence and influence of Twitter's user base. However, he also noted that this attention is poorly monetized, as the value of such a vast amount of attention is not fully realized. When contacted for comment, Twitter responded with a poop emoji.