nitter

Nitter (WIP)

A free and open source alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy. \ Inspired by the invidio.us project.

• No JavaScript or ads
• All requests go through the backend, client never talks to Twitter
• Prevents Twitter from tracking your IP or JavaScript fingerprint
• Unofficial API (no rate limits or developer account required)
• Lightweight (for @nim_lang, 32KB vs 552KB from twitter.com)
• Dark theme

Installation

git clone https://github.com/zedeus/nitter
cd nitter
nimble build

To run, ./src/nitter

Todo

• Simple account system with feed (excludes retweets)
• Hiding retweets from timelines
• Video support with hls.js
• "Cards" (link previews)
• Server config
• File caching
• Themes
• Search
• Json API

Why?

It's basically impossible to use Twitter without JavaScript enabled. If you try, you're redirected to the legacy mobile version which is awful both functionally and aesthetically. For privacy-minded folks, preventing JavaScript analytics and potential IP-based tracking is important, but apart from using the legacy mobile version and a VPN, it's impossible. Using an instance of Nitter (hosted on a VPS for example), you can essentially browse Twitter without JavaScript, while retaining your privacy. In the future a simple account system will be added that lets you follow Twitter users, allowing you to have a clean chronological timeline without needing a Twitter account.

Screenshot