What's this about?
The Nitter project and the XCancel instance received cease-and-desist notices from X, threatening the main way people read X posts without an account.
What exactly is Nitter?
Nitter is an alternative front-end: it fetches public posts and shows them as a plain web page with no login, no tracking and no JavaScript. It is what lets a link to an X post work for someone without an account. Losing it means those links become login walls.
What's the community saying?
HN 669 points, 569 comments
- The most-replied thread is a genuine question about what X is even for now, with people noting they mostly see it linked when a tech CEO has said something.
- The strongest practical complaint is broader than X: content requiring an account to read at all, with Instagram, TikTok and Reddit named alongside.
- A pointed exchange about consistency — if you call it a Nazi app, why be upset about losing access to a mirror of it?
- A well-received tangent about HN's own moderator actively helping someone build an HN clone rather than shutting it down, offered as a contrast in how platforms treat mirrors.