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Twitter source code leaker must be identified; launch of Verified Organizations

A court has ordered that code-collaboration site Github must identify the Twitter source code leaker. The social networking company had earlier applied for the court order, which has now been granted …

Twitter source code leaker

The leak was reported earlier this week.

Parts of Twitter’s source code were posted to code-sharing site Github, and have seemingly been available there for several months before the company noticed, and issued a court request for a subpoena.

As we noted at the time, it doesn’t take a genius to conclude that the code was most likely uploaded by one of the many engineers laid off by Musk in the wake of his purchase of the company.

Musk slashed the workforce in order to save money, and in an email to employees on Friday admitted that the company is currently worth less than half the sum he paid for it following the loss of a huge amount of ad revenue.

Court grants Twitter’s request

The US District Court for Northern California has now issued a subpoena.

You are commanded to produce at the time, date, and place set forth below the following documents, electronically stored information, or objects, and to permit inspection, copying, testing, or sampling of the [following] materials:

All identifying information, including the name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), email address(es), social media profile data, and IP address(es), for the user(s) associated with the following GitHub username: FreeSpeechEnthusiast. Please include all identifying information provided when this account was established, as well as all identifying information provided subsequently for billing or administrative purposes.

All identifying information, including the name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), email address(es), social media profile data, and IP address(es), for the users who posted, uploaded, downloaded or modified the data at the following URL:

https://github.com/FreeSpeechEnthusiast/PublicSpace

However, it’s unclear how much of this information Github may hold, beyond IP addresses.

Twitter Verified Organizations launch

Separately, Twitter has now launched its Verified Organizations program, Musk’s latest attempt to replace lost ad revenue with user charges.

Verified Organizations is a new way for organizations and their affiliates to distinguish themselves on Twitter. Rather than relying on Twitter to be the sole arbiter of truth for which accounts should be verified, vetted organizations that sign up for Verified Organizations are in full control of vetting and verifying accounts they’re affiliated with.

Accounts affiliated with the organization will receive an affiliate badge on their profile with the organization’s logo, and will be featured on the organization’s Twitter profile, indicating their affiliation. All organizations are vetted before they can join Verified Organizations.

The program reportedly costs $1,000 per month for the gold check mark for the main account, plus $50/month per verified user. It remains to be seen how many companies will be willing to pay this, beyond large news businesses.

Photo: Kevin Ku/Unsplash

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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