WEIR
Get a key
Language中文日本語
Theme

Is XCancel Down? What Happened and What Works in 2026

XCancel answered our 5 November 2026 check with HTTP 451. The cease-and-desist timeline, whether it's coming back, and what works for posts and threads.


Published · Updated · 7 min read

Cover image: Still 451 in November

Yes, XCancel is down: the site has been suspended since mid-September 2026, after legal action by X Corp. We checked on 5 November, and every page we tried was still blocked.

This guide is for you if XCancel was how you read X (Twitter) posts, threads or feeds. You get the timeline, whether it's coming back, and what works instead. We run Weir, one of those routes.

Check it yourself. The first line of the reply is the status:

curl -sI https://xcancel.com/

Is XCancel down? Our 5 November check

XCancel is down for everyone, so it's not your browser, your network or your settings.

We checked xcancel.com with plain curl on 5 November 2026. The home page, a NASA post page and an RSS feed all gave the same answer. Here is what you get back:

HTTP/1.1 451
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 2026 19:55:07 GMT

The page itself is a short notice. Under the heading "XCancel service is suspended," it says:

Unfortunately, due to a new development in the ongoing legal proceedings, we are required to suspend this service again until further notice. We can't share more details.

Its only link is a "Continue to X" button.

If you saved XCancel links, swap xcancel.com for x.com in the address; the rest of the link stays the same.

Code 451 is the web's "Unavailable For Legal Reasons" status. Its standard, RFC 7725, covers pages a server withholds because of legal demands.

What happened to XCancel? The cease-and-desist timeline

XCancel was a separate site built on Nitter, the open-source X viewer whose README promises "zero ads" and no IP tracking by Twitter. When X Corp. went after Nitter in August, it sent XCancel a letter too.

XCancel's notices changed along the way: in August it was "seeking legal advice," and since September it cites "ongoing legal proceedings."

XCancel has shut down twice in 2026, by the sites' own notices:

  1. 24 AugustX Corp.'s letters arrive. XCancel stops by the next day.
  2. By 7 SeptemberXCancel resumes "following legal progress from Nitter."
  3. 8 SeptemberNitter gets a second letter "with the same demands."
  4. 14 SeptemberXCancel suspends again, now with HTTP 451.
  5. 10 OctoberNitter's maintainer says it has "no legal counsel."
  6. 5 NovemberOur check: still HTTP 451.

X's letter accused Nitter of "unlawful use and circumvention" of X's API and data, TechCrunch reported on 25 August. Nitter says the letters demanded "a permanent takedown of Nitter instances and the project's repository."

Nitter's code is archived on GitHub, which makes it read-only.

TechCrunch saw the repository archived on 11 September. It was reopened for a README update on 9 October, then archived again that day, the date GitHub shows now.

Is XCancel back, or coming back?

No, and nobody has given a date.

XCancel tied its September return to "legal progress from Nitter" on its home page. On 10 October, Nitter's maintainer wrote that the legal help he had announced fell through. He is now "seeking funding and legal help."

XCancel's own notice gives no timeline beyond "until further notice," so treat any return date you see elsewhere as a guess.

XCancel alternatives in 2026, by what you used it for

No single site replaces XCancel, so match the route to the job you gave it:

You used XCancel to Use now You need
Read posts, replies X itself An X account
Read a long thread Our thread reader A free Weir sign-in
Show a post on a site X's embed code The post's link
Follow by RSS A feed service or script Some setup
See quote posts X's quotes list An X account
Feed posts to AI Weir's MCP server or API A Weir account

We run Weir, the service in two of those rows. Still, if you mostly read, a plain X account is your closest swap. If you publish, use embeds; if you collect posts, use an API.

  • Make an X account for daily reading. X's sign-up help page lists no fee, and logged in you get search, replies and quotes.
  • Embed posts instead of linking XCancel. X's Help Center says a post's menu has "Embed post," which opens publish.x.com. It worked for our NASA test post.
  • Rebuild your feeds with our Twitter RSS feed guide, which compares feed services with a small script.

None of these copies XCancel's privacy: X sees what you read on X, and an API sees what you ask it for.

Read a thread without XCancel: our 5 November test

If you used XCancel to read threads, that habit is the easiest to replace.

Our free Twitter thread reader takes the link of any post in a thread and shows the author's posts in order. You can copy the thread as text or Markdown. You need a free Weir sign-in, not an X account.

If your Claude or ChatGPT has Weir connected, paste this instead:

Use Weir to read the thread at https://x.com/NASA/status/2118378879052120359 and list each post with its time.

We ran that call through Weir's MCP server on 5 November 2026, on NASA's live spacewalk thread, and trimmed the reply:

→ get_x_thread {"id": "2118378879052120359"}
← 6 posts by @NASA, oldest first · 7 credits
  12:00 UTC  LIVE: Watch as ... install the final roll-out solar array
  13:52 UTC  Off to work we go 🎵
  15:03 UTC  The roll-out solar array is out of its carrier ...
  16:24 UTC  Today’s spacewalk is: ... The 9th spacewalk of 2026
  17:39 UTC  Teamwork! ... now extended to its full 20 ft width.
  17:39 UTC  POV: Your office is in the sky.

We passed the fourth post, and Weir returned the posts before and after it, so you can start anywhere. Other people's replies are left out.

The call cost 7 credits, a credit per post plus a credit for the call. At that rate, your free monthly credits cover about 700 threads this size.

If you script it, it's one GET request, as in our docs:

curl --request GET \
  --url 'https://api.weirapp.io/v1/x/posts/2118378879052120359/thread' \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $WEIR_API_KEY"

Weir is a paid API with 5,000 free credits a month, not a mirror. It hands posts to your agent or your code, and there's no feed to scroll. Our guide to whether ChatGPT and Claude can read tweets shows how to connect it.

When not to use Weir

  • Scrolling a feed is the goal. Weir has no timeline page, so an X account is closer to XCancel.
  • You want no sign-up at all. Weir needs an account; our logged-out test shows what X opens without one.
  • Protected accounts are off limits. Weir reads public posts only.
  • Posting or liking needs X itself. Weir is read-only.

Weir isn't licensed by X, so access can change. X's Terms of Service say you "cannot scrape the Services without X's express written permission," so check what applies to you. This isn't legal advice.

FAQ

Why is XCancel not working?

XCancel has suspended its service, so no page loads for anyone. Its pages now show a notice citing "ongoing legal proceedings" and nothing more. If x.com links keep opening on XCancel, an extension or app setting is redirecting them, so turn it off.

Is XCancel back?

No: after about a week back online in September, it suspended again on 14 September 2026. Our check on 5 November still got the legal block, and there is no return date. Run curl -sI https://xcancel.com/ to check it yourself.

XCancel vs Nitter: what's the difference?

Nitter is the open-source X viewer, and nitter.net was its main site. XCancel ran Nitter's code on its own site for two years, by its own count. Both got letters from X Corp. in August 2026, and today each shows only a notice.

Does XCancel RSS still work?

No. Its RSS feeds are down with the rest of the site, and the feed we tested on 5 November got the same block. For feeds now, our Twitter RSS feed guide covers feed services and a small script you can run yourself.

How can I see quote tweets without XCancel?

On X, you can open the post and tap its quotes, or search quoted_tweet_id: plus the post's id. Our guide to seeing quote tweets covers both, plus a script that saves every quote to a file.

Sources

Checked 5 November 2026 unless noted.

Keep reading