On Monday 24th August at 8PM EST, XCancel received a cease and desist letter from X Corp., halting the service until further notice while seeking legal advice. Similarly, on 24 August 2026, X Corp. sent cease and desist letters demanding permanent takedown of Nitter instances and its repository, resulting in nitter.net going offline and development stopping. The operator of Nitter thanked users, hosts, packagers, donors, and contributors over seven years.

Both services are complying with the legal demands pending advice. The broader context discusses concerns over X's control over user content, infrastructure dependency, network effects limiting competition, and the impact on public services relying on the platform for vital updates. It argues for regulation of network effects, especially for public services and news outlets, and laments the abandonment of open protocols due to moderation and discoverability challenges, suggesting a return to models like webrings as alternatives.