Nitter and XCancel are back online to battle X Corp over takedown demands

The popular privacy-focused X frontend Nitter and major public instances like XCancel are officially making a comeback. Following a sudden shutdown in late August due to C&D notices from X Corp, the development team posted a notice on September 7 confirming that the project will continue following new legal advice. To back up the announcement, lead developer Zedeus unarchived the official Nitter GitHub repository, making the underlying source code available once again for instance hosts like XCancel.

The return of the source code is backed by a strong stance from the project's lead maintainer. Posting on X, Zedeus confirmed that the team has secured legal representation to fight the takedown demands, stating that Nitter is only going to grow and become more resilient. Although a minor update is already live on the main website, the developer is temporarily withholding sensitive legal details. Warning followers that the fight is on, Zedeus promised that a major announcement dropping on either Tuesday or Wednesday will clarify the situation. In a follow-up post, the developer also hinted at a cryptic Wednesday 5 PM EST deadline.

This escalating legal dispute began on August 24 when X Corp sent Cease and Desist (C&D) orders demanding a permanent takedown of the Nitter repository and its network of instances. The project immediately went offline in response to the legal threat. At the time, the main website displayed a message stating that development had stopped while the team sought legal counsel. Now equipped with proper legal representation, the team is officially refusing to comply with the initial takedown requests.