We have yet another challenge for Elon Musk and his men, this time, with The New York Times reporting that part of the platform’s source code has been leaked online, which could leave Twitter more vulnerable to hackers, as well as its competitors. Upon discovery of the leak, Twitter immediately sought its removal, even vowing legal action against the perpetrator, who was believed to have been a disgruntled former employee.
As The NYT explains:
“Twitter moved on Friday to have the leaked code taken down by sending a copyright infringement notice to GitHub, an online collaboration platform for software developers where the code was posted, according to the filing. GitHub complied and took down the code that day. It was unclear how long the leaked code had been online, but it appeared to have been public for at least several months.”
The Scoop
One of the primary threats of source code leaks is that they effectively provide hackers with a map of potential vulnerabilities, opening up Twitter to more attacks in the future. In Twitter’s case, it could also help potential competitors build a more Twitter-like platform with direct insight into the back-end code that drives the site.
The latter may be less of a concern, but given how many Twitter clones and wannabes there are now, in an effort to engage and capture Twitter cast-offs who are unhappy with the changes in the app, the leak comes at a particularly ill-timed moment for Musk’s Social Media project. This also comes shortly after Musk revealed that the app is now worth less than half of the $44 billion he paid to acquire it last September.
Late last week, Musk outlined a new incentive program for Twitter employees, structured around equity in the company, as a means to better engage them in its future success. Within this, the valuation for ‘Twitter 2.0’ was stated at $20 billion – which many market analysts say is still too high, given the app’s current state. Financially speaking, however, Twitter is in a much better financial state now than it was before Musk acquired it, albeit a more precarious one. To cut a long story short, Musk did everything he could to reduce costs, which now has Twitter potentially breaking even this year, if you don’t mind the extra error or two, which are likely the result of reduced oversight due to 75% of its staff now gone.
At the same time, many of Twitter’s top ad partners have not resumed spending, at least not at the same levels since Musk took over – partly due to the economic downturn and Musk’s various, often drastic, changes in the app. It’s going to be a long and difficult road to Musk’s envisioned $250 billion Twitter industry. The word difficult might not even be enough to describe it.
The Wrap
The main concern for advertisers remains to be Musk’s free speech push, which has seen him reinstate thousands of previously banned accounts back on the app, while also amplifying conspiracy theories and controversial profiles from his own Twitter account. Musk may need to reconsider his approach at some point in the future, especially if he means to win over Twitter’s ad partners. Regardless, Musk continues to tout that the platform is growing and that advertisers are slowly coming back.
Only time will tell if any of what he says is true. Meanwhile, Twitter is now also seeking a court order that would force GitHub to reveal the identity of the one who shared the source code, along with any of the GitHub users that downloaded it.
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