Nitter has more working instances than before the takedowns

Nitter Instance Availability & Management

• Many note that despite takedowns, there are now more Nitter (and similar) instances, but they tend to be fragile and transient.
• Several users describe the “whack‑a‑mole” nature: public instances appear, get rate‑limited or blocked, and disappear.
• Others argue this is manageable: Nitter is easy to self‑host, especially for small/private use, e.g., behind basic auth or alongside other privacy frontends (Invidious, SearXNG, Redlib).
• Multiple balancing/redirect solutions are mentioned (LibRedirect, custom balancers, redirect services like xxcancel.com / xxcancel.com / twit.0r.cx, Android apps), though most do not actively health‑check instances.
• Some warn about “extremely sketchy” instances (fake CAPTCHA flows leading to exploit URLs).

API Sessions, Legality, and Risk

• The instance list references a site selling bulk X/Twitter accounts/sessions; reaction ranges from “extremely shady” to “normal gray‑market practice with plausible pricing.”
• One commenter vouches that those accounts work but advises very small purchases.
• Questions about legal risk when publicly hosting Nitter get answers like “if you’re small they won’t notice” and a claim that Nitter is legal, but the legal status is ultimately unclear in the thread.
• One critic worries that public celebration of new instances will simply help X’s lawyers find and kill them.

UI/UX and Alternative Frontends

• Many praise Nitter (and analogous tools like Redlib) for: lightweight HTML, no login requirement, fewer ads, and a calmer interface compared to X’s heavy SPA.
• Others counter that the official X app is faster for them and that Nitter’s UI is “terrible” and only useful because it bypasses login/API limits.
• Several note that X and Reddit have become much worse for new/uncurated accounts, full of ragebait and low‑quality content; alternative frontends partly mitigate this.

Linking, Longevity, and Primary Sources

• Some argue HN should link directly to X so links don’t die when Nitter instances do.
• Counterpoint: Nitter URLs are trivially convertible back to X (only domain differs), so link rot is overstated.
• One person reports already encountering dead Nitter/XCancel links and insists on primary‑site URLs.

Ethics of Using X/Twitter (Even via Nitter)

• One camp: continuing to read X content, even via Nitter, sustains its relevance and undercuts collective refusal; the only real protest is to stop consuming it altogether.
• Another camp: evasion (like piracy) is valuable pressure against hostile platforms and gatekeeping; “circumvent rather than submit” is framed as legitimate resistance.
• Some suggest “if you’re on X, I’m not interested,” arguing for social ostracism of the platform.

Broader Social Media / Culture Tangents

• X is repeatedly described as a “dumpster fire” with a lot of hate, racism, and extremist politics in recommendations and replies, especially on fresh accounts.
• Others defend their curated X feeds as high‑signal (tech, science, rockets) and praise the open‑sourced recommendation algorithm, while skeptics doubt the deployed code matches the public repo.
• Comparisons with Bluesky/Mastodon are polarized: one side sees them as “decent people’s” exodus; another sees both sides as just different flavors of terminally‑online culture.
• Nostalgia surfaces for a simpler pre‑“walled garden” web and early‑smartphone era, contrasted with today’s login walls, surveillance, and engagement‑driven design.