Nitter goes dark after cease-and-desist letters, XCancel reportedly targeted too
On 25 August 2026, users of Nitter, the open-source proxy that let people read X posts without logging in or holding an account, found every public instance returning an "Instance has been rate limited" error. A user named AlexandrPutenikhin opened a GitHub issue on the zedeus/nitter repository reporting that every instance showed the identical error, linking to an archived snapshot of one such instance from earlier the same day. A few hours later the project's maintainer, GitHub user zedeus, replied in the thread: "We have received cease and desist letters. Awaiting legal advice at the moment, but for now expect all nitter instances to remain down for the foreseeable future." The zedeus/nitter GitHub repository was itself archived by its owner on the same day, 25 August 2026, and is now read-only.
In the same discussion, a commenter using the handle MiningTcup wrote that XCancel, another popular Nitter-style viewer, had also received a cease and desist, adding that XCancel might be more resilient because it is not believed to be based in the United States. That claim comes from a third party rather than from XCancel's own operators, and the source does not name who sent either set of letters or state the legal basis behind them. Elsewhere in the thread, a commenter identified as AlexRulesVGCP asserted that "zedeus was forced to delete the repo," but this too is an unconfirmed claim from a forum participant rather than a statement from zedeus himself. The source gives no timeline for whether or when Nitter instances might return, and no count of how many instances existed or were affected.
Key facts
- On 25 August 2026, all public Nitter instances began returning an "Instance has been rate limited" error, as reported in a GitHub issue by AlexandrPutenikhin.
- Nitter maintainer zedeus confirmed the outage followed cease-and-desist letters and wrote that instances would stay down "for the foreseeable future" pending legal advice.
- The zedeus/nitter GitHub repository was archived by its owner the same day, 25 August 2026, and is now read-only.
- A commenter (MiningTcup) reported that XCancel, another X-viewing front end, also received a cease and desist, though this is not confirmed by XCancel itself.
- The source does not state who sent the letters or their legal basis; an unverified forum comment separately claims zedeus was "forced to delete the repo."
Why it matters
Nitter and XCancel were among the last widely used tools letting people read X posts without an account, without ads and without X's own tracking. Their near-simultaneous legal trouble removes a workaround many users, journalists and researchers relied on to view public X content, and the repository's archival signals the open-source project itself may be winding down rather than just experiencing a temporary outage.
Who it affects
Anyone who used Nitter or XCancel to browse X without logging in, including people avoiding X's account requirements, ad load or data collection; sites and posts that embedded Nitter links to X content, which now point to a dead service; and the projects' maintainers, including zedeus for Nitter, who now face unspecified legal proceedings.
How to use it
Nitter is down, and a commenter says XCancel was also targeted, though the source carries no confirmation from XCancel itself. Nitter's GitHub repository is archived and read-only, so no new code or instance list is being maintained there. A commenter identified as MiningTcup said a self-hosted instance still worked, but the source gives no setup guidance and no confirmation of which, if any, self-hosted deployments remain reachable.
How solid is it
The outage, its date, the maintainer's confirmation of cease-and-desist letters, and the repository's archival are all well sourced: they come from a comment posted directly by zedeus, the repository's owner, plus GitHub's own repository metadata. The claim that XCancel also received a letter rests on a single third-party commenter rather than a statement from XCancel itself, and the claim that zedeus was forced to delete the repository appears only as unconfirmed speculation from another forum participant.
Risks and caveats
The source does not identify who sent the cease-and-desist letters or their legal basis, does not carry a statement from XCancel confirming its own situation, and gives no timeline for whether Nitter will return. Any claim that names a specific sender or a firm legal reason for the shutdown goes beyond what this thread actually establishes.
“We have received cease and desist letters. Awaiting legal advice at the moment, but for now expect all nitter instances to remain down for the foreseeable future.”
— zedeus, Nitter maintainer