A software's source code is any collection of text, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text.
It's designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, and is meant to be transformed into by an assembler or compiler into binary machine code so that it can be understood and executed by a computer.
In other words, a software's source code is everything a software is.
And this time, parts of Twitter's source has been leaked to the internet, uploaded to GitHub under the name "PublicSpace," and has reportedly been online for at least several months.
Because of this, the Elon Musk-led company is filing a lawsuit.
GitHub complied to the request, according to a post on its website, and took down the code on that same day.
The source code’s public exposure came to light after the social media company took legal action to have the leaked information taken off GitHub.
GitHub agreed to immediately remove the content, which appeared to be leaked by a person that goes by the name “FreeSpeechEnthusiast” on the online platform for software development, after Twitter sent over the copyright infringement notice.
This kind of leak, since it involves the source code of a software, could allow competitors or bad actors to reverse-engineer the platform to know its innerworkings.
It could also allow hackers to seek security vulnerabilities, and create exploits to hack Twitter, steal user data, or even take down the platform entirely.
Due to this severity, and also since the source code is what makes the social media, and that it's a rare but major exposure of intellectual property, Twitter also asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to force GitHub to reveal who shared the code and to identify any other people that downloaded it, according to the filing.
Twitter is also launching an internal probe into the leak in order to determine whoever published the code.
The company then realized that the person who may have leaked, was a high-level executive at Twitter, and had left the San Francisco-based company in 2022.
For more than often, technology companies are viewed as a source for privately held secrets, personal information of people, and high-priced intellectual properties. Because of this, they are usually under the crosshairs of hacker, who wish to exploit the systems to their own advantages.
But even as technology companies are good in protecting themselves and their code bases, sometimes, leaks happened after someone from inside the company goes rogue.
Billionaire and serial entrepreneur Elon Musk bought Twitter in October for $44 billion, before having the company’s 7,500 employees laid off or resigned.
And this exposed source code adds to the challenges facing Musk’s Twitter, mounting on top of the company's existing structural and financial challenges.
Musk has been trying to turn around the social network by extremely slashing costs, trying out new features and welcoming back previously banned users, including Donald Trump and Kanye West.
But as outages of the service have increased, a number of high-profile advertisers have been showing their concerns of running more of their ads on the site.
As a result of everything, the turmoil has caused financial damage.
Musk reportedly told employees in an email that Twitter was worth roughly $20 billion, or down more than 50% from what he paid for it.
But as an entrepreneur, and as a person who invested huge money to buy Twitter, Elon Musk is not giving up.
"Twitter is being reshaped rapidly," he said in the email. adding that the company could be thought of as "an inverse start-up," and that he believed Twitter could someday be worth $250 billion.
Speaking about the leak, Musk worried about the possibility of leaks and theft by disgruntled former employees during his mass layoffs.
Among other reasons, Twitter has prevented engineers from making changes to the site’s code ahead of layoffs for fear that someone would sabotage the platform on the way out the door.