According to reports, portions of Twitter's source code, the computer code that the social network is built upon, were leaked online.

This is a rare and significant exposure of intellectual property at a time when the company is working to resolve technical issues and turn around its financial fortunes under Elon Musk.

It is said that Twitter took action last week to get the leaked code removed by notifying GitHub, an online community for software engineers where the code was posted, of a copyright violation.

That day, GitHub obliged and removed the code. The length of time the leaked code had been accessible online was unknown, but it seemed to have been open for at least several months.

Twitter also asked the US District Court for the Northern District of California to require GitHub to provide the identity of the person who shared the code and any others who downloaded it.

Even executives handling the case believe that whoever was in charge of the leak left the San Francisco-based company last year. Twitter initiated an investigation into the breach. Almost 75 percent of Twitter's 7,500 employees have been let go or quit since Musk paid $ 44 billion to acquire the firm in October.

It is believed that source code leak was only recently disclosed to executives. One issue is that the programing has security flaws that could allow hackers or other determined individuals to steal user data or bring the website to an end, they claimed.

The leak for Twitter comes on top of growing structural and financial difficulties. During the past few months, Musk has been working to turn around the social network by cutting costs, experimenting with new features, and allowing members who had been banned to rejoin.

Nonetheless, service interruptions have risen, and advertisers—the company's primary source of income—have been wary of placing ads on the website.