Until recently, Nitter was an open source, user-powered resource that allowed internet users to read posts on X without logging into X. Some view avoiding X as something like a moral imperative, and Nitter provided a workaround that allowed X avoiders the occasional guilt-free peek. But it looks like Nitter is now on life support.
A message on its site reads:
“Cease and desist
On 24 August 2026 cease and desist letters have been sent by X Corp. demanding a permanent takedown of Nitter instances and the project’s repository.
nitter.net is offline and development has stopped for the time being. I’m seeking legal advice and won’t be commenting further on the specifics for now.
Thank you to everyone who used, hosted, packaged, donated and contributed to Nitter over the past seven years.”
There’s a similar note on the Nitter GitHub page. So the letters from X, it seems, have worked. Nitter’s creators have evidently ceased and desisted.
TechCrunch says it has read at least one of the letters in question. That publication quotes that letter as accusing Nitter of “unlawful use and circumvention of X’s Application Programming Interface (API) and associated data.” Nitter is allegedly violating “various state and federal laws, including, but not limited to, the Texas Harmful Access by Computer Act (§ 143.001 and § 33.02) and the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1114, 1125).”
Nitter has been brought close to death before. Reddit users reported being cut off from it three years ago—though they bickered at the time about whether it was truly gone or not. According to ArsTechnica, the 2024 X/Twitter API cutoff temporarily broke Nitter as well.
For what it’s worth, a Reddit user named Pebkachu wrote on Tuesday that “a few maintainers of other instances [of Nitter] are still trying their best to keep it alive (and might be more resilient to said letters if they don’t reside in the US).” So it’s over-ish for Nitter, but it’s an open-source project, and it won’t be truly over unless it no longer works for anyone anywhere.
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