Key facts
- Nitter and XCancel, services for viewing X posts without an account, have ceased operations.
- X previously sent Nitter a cease-and-desist letter regarding its API usage.
- Nitter's GitHub page was archived on September 11.
- XCancel suspended its service on September 13 due to legal proceedings.
Nitter and XCancel, two services that offered privacy-friendly ways to view posts on the social media platform X without an account, have shut down following legal actions from X. Nitter, an open-source project, allowed users to access X posts without ads, tracking cookies, or JavaScript. X had previously sent Nitter a cease-and-desist letter alleging unlawful use and circumvention of its API and data, stating that Nitter scraped user data and session tokens in violation of its rules.
Despite initial defiance, with Nitter stating on its GitHub page that it would continue following legal advice, the situation has since changed. Nitter's GitHub page was archived on Friday, September 11, marking it as read-only. XCancel announced on Monday that it was suspending its service again due to new developments in the ongoing legal proceedings.
These closures align with X's broader strategy to monetize content views through ads and disallow third-party apps, a move that previously led to the demise of services like Twitterific and Tweetbot. The shutdown is a setback for users who preferred to view X content without direct engagement or contributing to user metrics.