Nitter and XCancel cease operations after X escalates legal pressure
Privacy-focused tools that allowed users to view X posts without logging in have shut down following a cease-and-desist letter and the archiving of key code repositories.
Nitter and XCancel have ceased operations, marking the latest escalation in X’s legal campaign against third-party services that allow users to read posts without an account. The closures follow a cease-and-desist letter sent by X last month, which alleged that Nitter engaged in the “unlawful use and circumvention” of the platform’s API and associated data.
According to the letter, X claimed that Nitter scraped data from the social network to access accounts and session tokens in violation of its rules. Despite the threat, Nitter had previously stated on its GitHub page that the project would continue following legal advice, with both Nitter and XCancel resuming operations in early September after a short pause.
The situation changed on 11 September, when Nitter’s GitHub repository was archived, placing the project in read-only status. This move effectively prevents the code from being modified or updated. Three days later, on 14 September, XCancel suspended its service, citing a new development in the ongoing legal proceedings.
XCancel published a message on its home page stating that it was required to suspend the service again until further notice. Nitter, which functioned by fetching public X posts and stripping out ads, tracking cookies, and JavaScript, did not respond to a request for comment regarding the shutdown.
For X, the primary motivation appears to be the monetisation of views. The platform has sought to prevent users from accessing content without logging in, a strategy that previously led to the banning of third-party apps such as Twitterrific and Tweetbot. This is not X’s first attempt to curb Nitter; in 2024, the main Nitter instance temporarily went offline after X rolled out new API restrictions that forced hosts to connect instances to real X accounts.
The closures end a clean, ad-free way for users to read X content without participating on the platform or helping X boost its user numbers. While Nitter’s repository is currently read-only, it remains unclear if the service will resume, as XCancel has only indicated that it is suspended until further notice.
