Twitter has taken legal action to prevent a potentially damaging loss of the source code that underpins its service, after parts of the code and other software were posted online.

The social media company acted on Friday to have the code removed from GitHub, a repository widely used in the software world to publish open-source code for anyone to use. It also sought a subpoena that would force GitHub to reveal anything it knew about the identity of the person who disclosed the code.

The underlying software instructions that determine how programs function, source code is closely guarded to prevent hackers gaining insights that could be used to attack the system. The potential loss of Twitter’s most important intellectual property follows a period of internal turmoil at the company that has led to warnings that its underlying technology could face disruption, including sabotage by disaffected workers.