GoKawiilX Corp sends cease-and-desist letters to Nitter and XCancel, forcing shutdown
X has issued legal takedown notices to the open-source Nitter project and its offshoot XCancel, accusing them of data scraping and rules violations. Both services, which let users read X posts without an account, JavaScript or tracking, have gone offline, with Nitter's maintainer citing legal advice and XCancel posting a notice about the cease-and-desist letter. Nitter's GitHub repository is now archived and read-only.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
Nitter offered a privacy-friendly, ad-free way to browse X content, and its removal cuts off a tool widely used by researchers, journalists and privacy-conscious users to access posts without engaging with X's official platform. The move also highlights tension between Elon Musk's public stance as a free-speech advocate and X's legal efforts to restrict third-party access to its content, echoing similar scraping disputes seen elsewhere in the industry, such as Meta's lawsuit against Bright Data.
- X sent cease-and-desist letters to Nitter and XCancel over alleged scraping and rules breaches.
- Both privacy-focused, ad-free X-viewing tools have shut down, with Nitter's GitHub repo now archived.
- The action reignites debate over X's stance on free access versus Musk's free-speech rhetoric.
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Published there as: “X sends in the lawyers to shut down open source project”
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