Elon Musk Bragged He Was Going to Open Source Twitter's Code, Now Furious That Someone Leaked It Online

So which is it?

Source Code Leak

Swathes of Twitter's source code leaked online months ago on GitHub, The New York Times reports, allowing practically anybody to get a detailed glimpse at the Elon Musk-owned company's underlying code.

It's still unclear how long the source code was available for download, but according to the NYT, GitHub took it down the day after Twitter sent out a copyright infringement notice.

The news has clearly ruffled some feathers at Twitter. According to a Friday court filing, the social media company is demanding that GitHub singles out the individual responsible for leaking the code.

But given the fact that Musk has repeatedly promised — and failed — to make Twitter "open source," that rage seems puzzling. More than a month ago, for instance, Musk promised the algorithm would be "made open source next week," though he never made good on that commitment. After his takeover late last year, Musk also fired the company's entire team dedicated to making the company's algorithms more transparent.

Inverse Start-Up

The leak — and hypocrisy — only add to the already precarious position of Musk and Twitter. On Friday, Musk told employees that the company he originally bought for $44 billion last year is now only worth around $20 billion.

Musk used the news to justify extensive restructuring and mass layoffs at the company, describing it as "an inverse start-up."

It doesn't take much reading between the lines to sense that Twitter is on shaky ground, despite its CEO billionaire promising that it's on a path to profitability and that "advertisers are returning."

Whether the source code leak will end up having future consequences for the company remains to be seen. But given the sheer number of fires the company is already having to put out, it's symptomatic of a company that's struggling to keep its ducks in a row.

And that's not exactly surprising. After all, many of the employees tending to the company's code have resigned or been fired under Musk's rule.

READ MORE: Twitter Says Parts of Its Source Code Were Leaked Online [The New York Times]

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