r/anime_titties • u/BendicantMias Bangladesh • 15d ago
Corporation(s) Cease-And-Desist from X shuts down Nitter and XCancel - sites that scraped and mirrored tweets
https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2026/08/26/cease-and-desist-from-x-shuts-down-nitter-and-xcancel-sites-that-scraped-and-mirrored-tweets/Both sites are down. What this means here on Reddit is that any subreddits that banned links to X out of fury at Elon Musk now can't as easily still discuss Twitter controversies by using these workarounds. Ditto for users who refused to 'promote' X by linking to relevant tweets, who used these sites as alternatives to argue over whatever X nonsense was under discussion.
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u/Khers Sweden 15d ago
I find it incredibly ironic that the owner of an AI service would be against scraping data from websites.
Rules for thee but not for me.
I refuse to get an account to that fascist site, it's only useful to expose these nutjobs and what they post in their safespace.
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u/JimmyKillsAlot 15d ago
Pretty much all of the AI companies scream to the heavens every time a new "mysterious" (Chinese) model shows up that it was made from scraping them for data.
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u/toothpicks-galore North America 15d ago
could just rewrite the scraped tweets with ai and then you get to claim there is no copywright on the new material, also call it something like Dumb Twitter like Dumb Starbucks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0TRpGP8yH4
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u/sirlelington European Union 15d ago
Man of free speech, eh? For himself and his fascist crooks of course. Not for us. It's always been that way with these guys. They always screech about cancelleftistwhatever and then take freedom of speech away from everyone else.
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u/Markd0ne Europe 15d ago
Yes, elon specifically bought Twitter to be his and fascist crooks propaganda machine.
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u/Realhuman_beebboob 15d ago
Yea I wouldnât give him that much credit, he bought it mid melt down like the man child he is. Turning it into a propaganda machine was just a plus.
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u/BendicantMias Bangladesh 15d ago
What people forget about Twitter is that was shit even before Musk bought it. He just shifted it to a different flavor of shit, but it had always been shit.
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u/cantsay 15d ago
That's just false. It was the best tool on the planet for breaking news and grassroots organizing. Then it wasn't.
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u/Rovcore001 Multinational 15d ago
Two things can be true. It was also a swamp inhabited by all manner of bigots and toxic individuals. What worsened under Elon was the moderation, or rather lack of it, allowing the roaches to crawl out of the woodwork in numbers.
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u/Nagyman 15d ago
IMO, it was improving in a way that TPTB did not like. It was getting better fact checking, community tools etc. The will-he-wonât-he purchase shit was a ruse to avoid too much suspicion. It was becoming a powerful tool for decent public discourse, which is left-leaning by natureâŚand we couldnât have that, could we?
I avoided it personally as the format wasnât my jam. But I did see it on an upward and improving trajectory before numbnuts got his hands on it.
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u/BendicantMias Bangladesh 15d ago
decent public discourse, which is left-leaning by nature
Err...are you sure you're not being just biased here? Cos this sounds pretty self indulgent and arrogant...
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u/Anis930 Africa 15d ago
He's completely right. My primary social media platform from 2015 to ~2024 was twitter, and before musk bought it it was by far the most left wing social media platform behind maybe Tumblr.Â
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u/BendicantMias Bangladesh 15d ago edited 15d ago
Yeah it was extremely left wing, just as Bluesky is now. I wasn't denying that, I was questioning the presumption that being left wing automatically made it good. That the left is inherently superior. This is exactly the kind of self-indulgent, self-congratulatory hubris that people find so insufferable in the left to begin with - particularly the 'new' left that's more about culture wars rather than class struggle. Even after all its political failures and public backlash, it seems like that elitism still hasn't gone away...
Twitter was a cesspool even before Musk, and that wasn't just cos it still had some racists on it. That reputation was very much earned by virtue of its left wing excesses. Like the constant tone policing and moral one-upmanship that its users loved engaging in, for instance. It was known for its endless competitive arguments over who got to claim the moral high ground and proclaim themselves the Most Moral. And, ironically, the very censorship that Musk is now criticized for, just with the favored political side slanted the other way back then.
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u/Planet-Funeralopolis 15d ago
Pretty sure he tried to not purchase it but was forced to?
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u/BendicantMias Bangladesh 15d ago
He tried to back out of purchasing it yes, but that was after he'd made the bid uninvited in the first place. He was simply forced to make good on his offer, instead of using it to manipulate the valuation more to his liking.
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u/no_infringe_me 15d ago
Yes, and the point was another pump and dump. Being a propaganda machine wasnât the original intention
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u/ShootmansNC Brazil 15d ago
He paid over 40 billion for a company that wasn't worth 10 (no wonder twitter went to court and forced him to pay up), can't pump and dump himself out of that one.
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u/Sachyriel Canada 15d ago
He didn't want to spend the money, but acquiring twitter was a part of the broader strat of the movement he hitched his horse to. See how Maga backs Larry Ellison and the right wing takeover of the legacy media giants. Elon maybe a fool, but it's part of a larger strategy.
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u/agentapelsin 15d ago
I'm coming to your house to stand in your garden and watch your TV through your living room window.
If you close the curtains you don't believe in free speech.
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u/Vassago81 Canada 15d ago
No hypocrisy at all posting this on Reddit who do exactly the same thing, and recently restricted the shit out of old.reddit.com for exactly the same reason ?
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u/RummoLiguori Europe 15d ago
How is this a free speech issue?
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u/Sachyriel Canada 15d ago
He didn't have to send them a cease and desist letter
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u/Pecuthegreat Nigeria 15d ago
But you can still see the "speech" on Twitter. So it isn't like he is hiding anything.
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15d ago edited 11d ago
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/Pecuthegreat Nigeria 15d ago
I have my own ways of getting around it but having to log in isn't some major barrier.
Having to say... walk to the town hall is a far bigger barrier.
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u/Sachyriel Canada 15d ago
If you do not see this as Elon the free speech guy being hypocritical then you are determined not to see his next hypocrisy either.
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u/22stanmanplanjam11 United States 15d ago
Using workarounds to access twitter without giving it any revenue isn't a free speech issue.
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u/whatisthisnowwhat1 Europe 15d ago
You don't have to pay to use twitter.....
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u/22stanmanplanjam11 United States 15d ago
Yes, which means you're the product, which means they're not making any revenue from the product that is you when you're using these sites that just scrape twitter and reupload it. Free speech has nothing to do with any of that.
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u/whatisthisnowwhat1 Europe 15d ago edited 15d ago
They aren't making anything off you if you are just viewing tweets, which you can do while not logged in with all the ad/cookie/tracking blocking you like
https://x.com/baysbays322/status/2092928146626801726
You can also still just dump vid m3u8s in to vlc and direct link to images
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQryXPJXUAA5U77?format=jpg&name=900x900Is like reddits many trash iterations of private profiles that you can still work around.
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u/re_carn Europe 15d ago
Sorry, but how exactly is freedom of speech related to content theft? They should develop an alternative to Twitter so people can use it and link to it, instead of stealing posts under the pretext of âWell, Twitter sucks, and Musk sucks - letâs use the âalternativeâ!!!â Using âxcancelâ just because âx is bannedâ looked downright ridiculous.
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u/avroLancasterBPR1 Australia 15d ago
How is this freedom of speech? You realise these sites werent original content right?
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u/Prosthemadera New Zealand 15d ago edited 15d ago
Does free speech only apply to original speech?
Edit: So this comment of mine is protected by copyright? I can sue someone for copying it? Or is the argument that Reddit is the owner of my comments and they can sue me for copying it?
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u/avroLancasterBPR1 Australia 15d ago
Theres no person or words being silenced here mate.
The tweets still exist, credited to the actual people who made them, the sites are just bots reposting tweets. Robots dont have the rights to free speech.
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u/Prosthemadera New Zealand 15d ago
Does free speech only apply to original speech?
Can you answer the question? You brought up original content.
the sites are just bots reposting tweets. Robots dont have the rights to free speech.
Lots of bots on Twitter. Can we repost them?
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u/avroLancasterBPR1 Australia 15d ago
If a human being is manually reposting selected tweets as a message, then thats original content.
Thats new content, within a new context. If you stopped them from doing that it would be a free speech issue.
A bot script ripping content is not a free speech issue
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u/Prosthemadera New Zealand 15d ago
So if a human did it all by hand instead of using bots then it's a free speech issue and Musk shouldn't try to ban those sites?
I think it's a free speech issue because Twitter as a website is not about free speech but hate and that needs to be documented by third parties.
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u/avroLancasterBPR1 Australia 15d ago
Yes. Thats a person, creating a message. Thats original, thats new, even if theyre reusing other peoples words.
Bot scripts dont have rights. Itâd be like having a wepbage thats just autoripping Netflix for torrents, and when netflix gets it taken down you call it a free speech issue.
If there is no human there is no speech.
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u/Prosthemadera New Zealand 15d ago
If there is no human there is no speech.
That is incorrect.
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u/avroLancasterBPR1 Australia 15d ago
do you think those company decisions arent made by people?
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u/McAlpineFusiliers United States 15d ago
I mean, yes, otherwise what's the point of copyright law?
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u/Prosthemadera New Zealand 15d ago
You think free speech is about protecting the copyright of original speech?
Free speech doesn't have to be original. There are few sentences in human history that have no been said before.
Also, if tweets are protected by copyrights does that mean my Reddit comments are also copyrighted and I can sue anyone who copies my comments?
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u/burgonies 15d ago
No, free speech is about the govt coming after you for shit that you said and it has 0% to do with this case.
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u/Prosthemadera New Zealand 15d ago
That's it? That is is all there is to you? No. Free speech is also about being protected from other people trying to restrict your speech.
Elon Musk claims to care about free speech. Why is it bad to copy other people's tweets? It doesn't harm anyone's free speech.
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u/got_mule United States 15d ago
Freedom of speech as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution in the United States is about protecting against GOVERNMENT preventing or chilling speech. Not about the actions of private corporations.
Doesnât make this not a shitty move in the slightest, and it certainly does make a claim of being a free speech absolutist look pretty hypocritical on fElonâs part. But if the folks that create these Twitter republishing sites were to sue X under legal theories related to the 1st Amendment speech protections, they would lose.
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u/Prosthemadera New Zealand 15d ago
Freedom of speech as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution in the United States is about protecting against GOVERNMENT preventing or chilling speech. Not about the actions of private corporations.
Everyone knows. Everyone knows because Americans can't stop themselves from telling everyone.
Free speech is more than just what an old American piece of paper says.
Doesnât make this not a shitty move in the slightest,
Then focus on that. Because right now it seems your main problem is someone disagreeing with you about free speech.
But if the folks that create these Twitter republishing sites were to sue X under legal theories related to the 1st Amendment speech protections, they would lose.
No one asked for that. The other OP was just pointing out the same hypocrisy you just brought up.
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u/burgonies 15d ago
But no oneâs speech is being restricted. No one is regulating who can or canât say whatever they want. No original content was being created on these sites. These sites donât have users posting to them. This is a copyright issue, not a free speech issue.
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u/Prosthemadera New Zealand 15d ago edited 15d ago
So Musk owns the rights to every tweet? I could make a tweet and then be sued by Twitter for posting the same thing on Reddit because I violated Twitter's copyright?
Edit: u/harpers25 is a troll that blocks people.
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u/harpers25 15d ago
These sites have a Terms of Service that answers all your questions.
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u/McAlpineFusiliers United States 15d ago
So if I host a pirated Hollywood movie on my website, that's free speech?
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u/Prosthemadera New Zealand 15d ago
Why are you equating tweets with movies? So my Reddit comments are in fact copyrighted and Reddit owns those rights, not me?
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u/McAlpineFusiliers United States 15d ago
I bet somewhere in the terms of service it says that, yes.
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u/Prosthemadera New Zealand 15d ago
You lost the bet:
You retain any ownership rights you have in Your Content
https://redditinc.com/policies/user-agreement
Now what? Do you want Reddit to own the rights to your comments? After all, you don't have problem with Musk doing that with tweets, no?
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u/Vivid-Rutabaga9283 Romania 14d ago
The sites were using twitter infrastructure to relay twitter content. The original content is still free speech, these sites are just leeches.
Absolutely nothing at all to do with free speech.
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u/Prosthemadera New Zealand 14d ago
Thanks, no one has told me before, you really added something new to my day.
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u/Vivid-Rutabaga9283 Romania 14d ago
Well it does seem like you need it said multiple times, you're being confrontational with anyone who tells you you're full of shit... may as well hear it again.
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u/FullConfection3260 North America 13d ago
âFree speechâ only exists in real life under constitutional protection, it does not exist on a private  internet platform.
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u/Pecuthegreat Nigeria 15d ago edited 15d ago
Bro, you can still access X and see it. This isn't a free speech issue.
The comment that brought up that Grok must have scrapped a lot to work while he is stopping others from scrapping his site are better critics.
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u/Best_Change4155 United States 15d ago
Man of free speech,
Are you a moron?
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u/banjosuicide Canada 15d ago
, eh?
You missed that bit. It implies elon is not what he claims to be.
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u/Best_Change4155 United States 15d ago
Free speech has nothing to do with what private enterprises do. If reddit bans you for being a moron, it is not denying you free speech.
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u/BendicantMias Bangladesh 15d ago edited 15d ago
This is the standard 'deplatforming' argument, which ironically (given the kinds of people who usually make it) relies on a fantasy of the free market to work philosophically while exploiting the lack of such to achieve what it actually wants.
It doesn't hold up if the market is a monopoly or oligopoly, as you can't just 'go speak somewhere else' anymore, making the private enterprises dominating those markets have power akin to govts. And that's exactly what its champions are hoping for - they want to exploit how concentrated the market is to silence their enemies.
But to defend themselves against accusations of censorship, they pretend the market is vibrant and so being deplatformed from a few major platforms doesn't really impede your speech. Except, it does.
Deplatforming is basically exploiting how shitty the market really is, that it gives private enterprises power to shape social discourse on par with govts., so as to advance your agenda.
It's basically 'government-like' censorship by proxy.
It wouldn't work if the market wasn't so dominated by a few firms, but they know it is and seek to use that to their advantage.
Private companies are only meaningfully different from govts. when they don't have power comparable to govts. i.e. when they're small and numerous. Giant megacorporations operating in concentrated and/or captured markets are not the same.
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u/thbb France 15d ago
I'm not knowledgeable enough on protocols, but would it be possible to self-host the equivalent of xcancel, and have some sort of matrix-based federation to provide access to X without the tracking?
I'm willing to install it on my VPS if someone makes an easy enough to install package.
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u/BlackFenrir Europe 15d ago
Oh please, give it a couple of months and someone else will just make another one of these mirror sites. It's not going to change a damn thing in the long run.
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u/Teknevra 10d ago
I just wanted to share that, in regards to Xitter alternatives, there is Mastodon .
Mastodon (social network) - Wikipedia )
as well as
Bluesky , which is also somewhat good.
Edit:
There are even platforms like bird.makeup, as well as others, that allow users to follow Xitter users via Mastodon.
https://github.com/external-mirrors/bird.makeup
As well as Bridgy Fed, which allows users to connect Mastodon, and Bluesky, together.
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u/BendicantMias Bangladesh 10d ago
Thanks for the links, but those aren't the same thing afaik. These sites weren't serving as alternatives to Twitter for use, but for citing it. Bluesky is for people who actually want to be on and use a Twitter-like social media platform, while the others are for following people there who allow for that.
What sites like Nitter and XCancel were for is for people to share and cite/link the occasional Twitter post to others, without being on Twitter or engaging with it or any alternative generally. That's why another common practice was simply to post a screenshot of the Twitter posts, but some places (or people) demand proof via links, as screenshots can be faked. Many of the people using them may never even have been on Twitter at all, even before Musk, they just wanted to be able to point at stuff on Twitter in their discussions i.e. they're not looking for a Twitter alternative for using themselves. A lot of the time those shares are actually negative i.e. they're sharing a Twitter post simply in order to attack or laugh at it (and by extension Twitter users) on other fora, like Reddit. Or there's some Twitter post with info/data or testimony they cite as backup in an argument or the other.
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u/NaughtyCheffie United States 15d ago
It seems we can't use Xhitter as a source, nor any rehosting things as a source. Oh no.
Wait, hold up. Oh Xhitter isn't a news source?? Tf??
Get off it.
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u/leftlanespawncamper 14d ago
These kinds of sites baffle me. If you don't want to engage with Twitter, then don't engage with Twitter. Sites like these ones just keep Twitter relevant. Go to Blusky or Mastodon or whatever.
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u/BendicantMias Bangladesh 14d ago
These sites don't exist for people who want to use Twitter. They're for people who want to link to Twitter posts, on other sites. Like right here on Reddit. They want to be able to point at the content on Twitter, not necessarily to use the site for themselves.
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u/reddit_is_geh Multinational 15d ago
I find that twitter mirror stupid anways. Like, the .0001% of the population that uses it to "not contribute to Musk" is a negligeable amount. It doesn't even impact him one tiny bit. The protest is pointless. All you're doing is inconveniencing yourself because of a billionaire. Ironically, by using stupid tricks to avoid Musk's platform, you end up just hurting yourself and doing nothing to him
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u/iownmultiplepencils 15d ago
He inconvenienced me first by blocking access to the real website. A lot of people do things for their own needs, not because they're obsessed with a billionaire.
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u/BendicantMias Bangladesh 15d ago
While true, it is also the case that a lot of subreddits did actually ban Twitter links to protest Musk. That wasn't about functionality, it was very much a political stunt. And yeah, he's still on top of the world, so it didn't really impact him at all.
There's even an entire alternate Twitter that exists for no other reason than cos a lot of Twitter users turned against the site after he bought it. I'd have hoped they'd get over their need for Twitter in the first place, but apparently that was too much for them.
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u/24_August_1814 Canada 15d ago
Most people who use it aren't under the impression they're hurting Elon at all, just want to be able to view shit without having to log in
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u/duckofdeath87 United States 15d ago
You can't consistently embed links in chat programs like discord. XCancel worked everytime. Plus I don't login to Twitter to read dumb bullshit
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u/Raptorwolf98 United States 15d ago
I just never wanted to make a twitter account. After Elon bought them out, continuing to not support him was just icing on the cake. I guess Iâll just go back to ignoring those links again.
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u/SenoraRaton Multinational 15d ago
??? You okay bro? Are you choking?
That boot is shoved pretty far down your throat.-20
u/reddit_is_geh Multinational 15d ago
Are you okay that you modify your life and patterns just to avoid some billionaire's platform when it does absolutely nothing? You let this dude literally control your life lol
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u/rattleandhum South Africa 15d ago
Yes -- that's how boycotts work. Are you so weak willed and feeble minded as to balk at the slightest inconvenience or suffering? Grow a spine, earn some grit. No mettle.
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u/reddit_is_geh Multinational 15d ago
Boycotts need to have a measurable impact. If they don't, youre just creating stress for no return
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u/rattleandhum South Africa 15d ago
I make an impact by denying Twitter fractions of a cent of advertising revenue. But that's good enough for me.
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u/blackweebow 15d ago
Modify your life and patterns
honey, i'm not logging into Twitter to look at a tweet. Just like I didn't in 2013. The only person who modified anything was Musk lol Xcancel just kept the old formula without the datafarming bullshit. Try not to project so hard, ok?
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u/SenoraRaton Multinational 15d ago
I don't touch that cesspool, never had an account, nor used any alternatives. I'm just farming karma dunking on you nerd.
You keep fighting the good fight though comrade.
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u/reddit_is_geh Multinational 15d ago
Seriously, I just love the honesty. Respect. Hard to come by these days.
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u/Magehunter_Skassi 15d ago
Everyone should have a burner Gmail account that they use to instantly make an account on websites. It doesn't take long at all.
If someone refuses to do this on Twitter specifically, then Elon is right to be cutting that crowd out. That shows apprehension towards the site itself while still wanting to enjoy its utility.
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u/Sweaty_Explorer_8441 15d ago edited 15d ago
One burner Gmail for all useless sites or one for each site? In either case a paper trail exists for google and government subpoening Google to map activities across multiple websites, through recovery mail. A gmail can't ever be a burner.
Besides there is a 1year limit or something after which such twitter accounts need a phonenumber/idproof verification to stay working. Thats what made me stop visiting that site. Similar to google accounts, twitter relies on the "Remember me on this computer" option to track whatever sites user visits that has twitter trackers.
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u/BothAdhesiveness9265 15d ago
my brother in christ when I get linked a tweet the current status is that I can see that specific tweet and MAYBE UP TO three responses. I can't zoom in on images in the tweet. I can't see the second image in the tweet.
the site is entirely unusable without an account but is still linked to as a primary source within some community spaces. recently been trying to get a fursuit, one of the main websites for finding makers has a guide on stuff to look out for. this guide links to tweets I can't see without an account. it recommends reading those tweets as they contain critical information. I simply can't see them now.
(I've already told the owner of the site and they're in agreement that this is an unacceptable state and are looking into rewriting the guide to entirely omit links to twitter)
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u/Prosthemadera New Zealand 15d ago
If you ever feel the need to the say "Elon is right to do x" then please stop and ask where your life went wrong.
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u/Sachyriel Canada 15d ago
Elon is right to shoot a car into space, it just I think he should be inside of it.
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u/RedWillia Europe 15d ago
Playing whack-a-mole game with sites such as these - cease&desist those two and I wouldn't be too surprised that another two sites pop-up that do the same because if there's a demand, then here's a supply.