X sends cease-and-desist to open-source project Nitter over alleged scraping

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Nitter, an open source project that allowed people to read X posts without logging into or even opening the X app, has received cease-and-desist letters from X demanding that it shut down. The news was shared via a brief message posted to the project’s website, and follows X’s earlier attempts to knock Nitter offline by technical means.

The service also powers a number of other sites, including XCancel, that allow people to view X posts directly.

This isn’t X’s first attempt to shut down Nitter. In 2024, Nitter’s flagship instance, Nitter.net, went dark temporarily after X rolled out new API restrictions. Nitter worked by fetching public X posts and then stripping out the ads, tracking cookies, and JavaScript, giving people a clean, clutter-free way to read posts without an account or the app.

After that crackdown, those who wanted to host a Nitter instance had to connect it to a...

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