X (formerly Twitter) has reportedly started suspending accounts sharing an alleged Twitter API leak showing several accounts protected from the platform's rules.
(Photo : Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
The supposed crackdowns started on Wednesday after user @TheAntifaTurtle shared a screenshot of "protected users" given free control to break the platform's policies "without consequence."
oh my god the Twitter API leak that clearly shows Twitter has special protections for right wing accounts is 100% confirmed real pic.twitter.com/72pSZHDd73
— Viathan 🇵🇸🔆 (@VermilViathan) July 24, 2024
Included in the list were the official X accounts of former President Donald Trump, accused human trafficker Andrew Tate, several right-wing accounts, and even X owner Elon Musk from stating banned words, including several profanities and racial slurs.
Twitter API Leaks Surge in Popularity Amid Account Crackdowns
The post, along with the account and several other re-posters, were taken down quickly but not before other users started discussing the alleged leak.
The crackdowns, however, only boosted the leak's legitimacy to the people as more claimed that discussions around the topic were intentionally being hidden on the Trending Topics tab.
It is worth noting that X has started issuing the "Manipulated Media" label since April 2023, according to the platform's webpage. X and Musk have yet to issue a statement regarding the matter.
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Twitter API Leak Put into Question
While people seem to trust the Twitter leak, experts seem to think otherwise.
As reported by the Daily Dot, several cybersecurity experts and even a hacker on the platform put the leak into scrutiny due to several supposed inconsistencies.
Former Twitter employees (prior to Musk's takeover) even stated that the platform only whitelists accounts through its "own internal moderation tooling," rather than an Okta API as seen in the supposed leak.
There is no certainty that the same method is being used after Musk acquired the platform and laid off multiple staffers but experts believed such oversight would still be unlikely for a platform as big as X.
can confirm at least while i was there that twitter made its own internal moderation tooling (they called it "agent tools" and they worked next to me, they were necessarily very secretive). don't know what it relied on but i only remember okta being used for sso
— d@nny "disc@" mcClanahan (@hipsterelectron) July 24, 2024
Lies, misinformation, and outright disinformation campaigns have been nothing new on X as politically-charged posts surged across the platform with the 2024 US Presidential Elections inching closer.
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