Open-source X front-end Nitter will continue operating after receiving legal advice, weeks after X Corp demanded its shutdown.
On August 24, X Corp sent cease and desist letters to Nitter, demanding a permanent takedown of Nitter instances and the project’s repository by 5 PM EST on August 25. The company accused Nitter of “unlawful use and circumvention of X's Application Programming Interface (API) and associated data,” alleging data scraping and unauthorized access to X accounts and session tokens, citing the Texas Harmful Access by Computer Act and the Lanham Act. Nitter initially complied, archiving its repository and marking it as read-only, and the XCancel instance halted operations.
However, the Nitter project has reversed course. The GitHub repository is no longer read-only and now states: “UPDATE: Following legal advice, the Nitter project will continue.” The homepage displays the same message, adding that both the flagship instance and third-party hosted instances will be restored soon, with a full announcement expected in the coming days.
This is not the first time Nitter has faced potential shutdown. In early 2024, X removed the guest account feature Nitter relied on, initially leading to the project’s announced end, but a workaround allowed it to continue. Similarly, Invidious, a privacy-focused YouTube front-end, received a seven-day shutdown demand from YouTube in June 2023 but ultimately remained operational. The author of the article speculates that X leadership may escalate the situation, and hopes the open source community will support projects like Nitter.
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