According to Twitter, some of the source code that powers the social networking platform used by multi-billionaire Elon Musk has been posted online. It claims that the code was uploaded to the Microsoft-owned website GitHub, where programmers can exchange code.

After receiving a takedown request from Twitter, it has now been taken down.

Separately, Mr. Musk is said to have told Twitter employees that the company is only worth a fraction of the $44 billion he paid for it last year.

“GitHub does not generally comment on decisions to remove content. However, in the interest of transparency, we share every DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] takedown request publicly,” a GitHub spokesperson told the BBC.

In the US, the DMCA was enacted into law in 1998. It aims to safeguard online content that is protected by copyright.

Twitter requested information from GitHub regarding the owner of the FreeSpeechEnthusiast account, which was used to leak the code, in the takedown request.

According to San Francisco based Twitter, the account violated the company’s copyrights, according to the petition.

Since purchasing the site in October of last year, Mr. Musk has reduced Twitter’s personnel by more than a third and dealt with a loss of advertising. The leak presents him with a new hurdle.

The CEO of Tesla reportedly stated that Twitter is currently valued at less than $20 billion.

According to technology news websites Platformer and the Information, who broke the story first, the estimate of the company’s valuation was based on Mr. Musk’s offer of equity grants to employees.

Moreover, Musk is said to have said to workers, “I see a clear, but tough route to a >$250B valuation,” implying a valuation increase of more than ten times for Twitter.

A poo emoji was automatically sent in response to a BBC request for comment via Twitter’s press office email account, following Mr. Musk’s announcement of the strategy in a tweet earlier this month.

(Adapted from FoxBusiness.com)