● Covered by 1 source · 1 reportMedium impact1 negative
X issues cease-and-desist letters to Nitter, an open-source X content viewer
Key points
- X sent cease-and-desist letters to Nitter on August 24, 2026.
- Nitter is accused of unlawful API use and data scraping.
- Nitter.net is offline, and project development has stopped.
- The legal action follows X's prior technical attempts to block Nitter.
X Takes Legal Action Against Nitter
X has issued cease-and-desist letters to Nitter, an open-source project that provided an ad-free interface for viewing X posts. The letters, sent on August 24, 2026, demand the permanent shutdown of Nitter instances and its project repository. This marks a shift to legal enforcement after X previously attempted to disable Nitter through technical means, such as API restrictions.
Allegations of Unlawful Scraping
The cease-and-desist letter from X accuses Nitter of "unlawful use and circumvention of X’s Application Programming Interface (API) and associated data." X claims to have evidence that Nitter scraped X data and accessed X accounts and session tokens, violating X's rules. The letter cites violations of various state and federal laws, including the Texas Harmful Access by Computer Act and the Lanham Act, and set a deadline of 5 p.m. EST on August 25 for Nitter to comply.
Nitter Project Goes Offline
Following the legal demands, the Nitter.net instance is now offline, and development on the project has been halted. The creator, known as Zedeus, stated that they are seeking legal advice and will not comment further on the specifics. Other Nitter instances have reportedly received similar letters, indicating a broader enforcement effort by X.
Background on Nitter's Functionality
Nitter functioned by fetching public X posts and then removing ads, tracking cookies, and JavaScript, offering a clean viewing experience without requiring an X account or the official app. In 2024, Nitter.net temporarily went offline due to new API restrictions imposed by X. After that, hosting a Nitter instance required connecting it to a real X account, but development resumed, and instances came back online until this latest legal action.
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Primary sources
GitHub zedeus/nitterReporting from
X has sent cease-and-desist letters to the open-source project Nitter, demanding the shutdown of its instances and repository due to alleged unlawful scraping and API circumvention. This legal action follows previous technical attempts by X to disable Nitter, which allowed users to view X posts without ads or tracking. The Nitter.net instance is now offline, and development has ceased as the creator seeks legal advice, impacting users who relied on the service for ad-free X content viewing.