148 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
148 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
# Nitter
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A free and open source alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy. \
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Inspired by the [Invidious](https://github.com/iv-org/invidious) project.
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- No JavaScript or ads
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- All requests go through the backend, client never talks to Twitter
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- Prevents Twitter from tracking your IP or JavaScript fingerprint
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- Uses Twitter's unofficial API (no rate limits or developer account required)
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- Lightweight (for [@nim_lang](https://nitter.net/nim_lang), 60KB vs 784KB from twitter.com)
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- RSS feeds
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- Themes
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- Mobile support (responsive design)
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- AGPLv3 licensed, no proprietary instances permitted
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Liberapay: https://liberapay.com/zedeus \
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Patreon: https://patreon.com/nitter \
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BTC: bc1qp7q4qz0fgfvftm5hwz3vy284nue6jedt44kxya \
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ETH: 0x66d84bc3fd031b62857ad18c62f1ba072b011925 \
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LTC: ltc1qhsz5nxw6jw9rdtw9qssjeq2h8hqk2f85rdgpkr \
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XMR: 42hKayRoEAw4D6G6t8mQHPJHQcXqofjFuVfavqKeNMNUZfeJLJAcNU19i1bGdDvcdN6romiSscWGWJCczFLe9RFhM3d1zpL
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## Roadmap
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- Embeds
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- Account system with timeline support
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- Archiving tweets/profiles
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- Developer API
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## Resources
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The wiki contains a list of
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[instances](https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Instances) and
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[browser extensions](https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Extensions)
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maintained by the community.
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## Why?
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It's basically impossible to use Twitter without JavaScript enabled. If you try,
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you're redirected to the legacy mobile version which is awful both functionally
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and aesthetically. For privacy-minded folks, preventing JavaScript analytics and
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potential IP-based tracking is important, but apart from using the legacy mobile
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version and a VPN, it's impossible. This is is especially relevant now that Twitter
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[removed the ability](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/twitter-removes-privacy-option-and-shows-why-we-need-strong-privacy-laws)
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for users to control whether their data gets sent to advertisers.
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Using an instance of Nitter (hosted on a VPS for example), you can browse
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Twitter without JavaScript while retaining your privacy. In addition to
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respecting your privacy, Nitter is on average around 15 times lighter than
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Twitter, and in most cases serves pages faster (eg. timelines load 2-4x faster).
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In the future a simple account system will be added that lets you follow Twitter
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users, allowing you to have a clean chronological timeline without needing a
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Twitter account.
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## Screenshot
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## Installation
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To compile Nitter you need a Nim installation, see
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[nim-lang.org](https://nim-lang.org/install.html) for details. It is possible to
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install it system-wide or in the user directory you create below.
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To compile the scss files, you need to install `libsass`. On Ubuntu and Debian,
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you can use `libsass-dev`.
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Redis is required for caching and in the future for account info. It should be
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available on most distros as `redis` or `redis-server` (Ubuntu/Debian).
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Running it with the default config is fine, Nitter's default config is set to
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use the default Redis port and localhost.
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Here's how to create a `nitter` user, clone the repo, and build the project
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along with the scss.
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```bash
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# useradd -m nitter
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# su nitter
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$ git clone https://github.com/zedeus/nitter
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$ cd nitter
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$ nimble build -d:release
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$ nimble scss
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$ mkdir ./tmp
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```
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Set your hostname, port, HMAC key, https (must be correct for cookies), and
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Redis info in `nitter.conf`. To run Redis, either run
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`redis-server --daemonize yes`, or `systemctl enable --now redis` (or
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redis-server depending on the distro). Run Nitter by executing `./nitter` or
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using the systemd service below. You should run Nitter behind a reverse proxy
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such as [Nginx](https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Nginx) or Apache for
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security reasons.
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To build and run Nitter in Docker:
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```bash
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docker build -t nitter:latest .
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docker run -v $(pwd)/nitter.conf:/src/nitter.conf -d -p 8080:8080 nitter:latest
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```
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A prebuilt Docker image is provided as well:
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```bash
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docker run -v $(pwd)/nitter.conf:/src/nitter.conf -d -p 8080:8080 zedeus/nitter:latest
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```
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Note the Docker commands expect a `nitter.conf` file in the directory you run them.
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To run Nitter via systemd you can use this service file:
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```ini
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[Unit]
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Description=Nitter (An alternative Twitter front-end)
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After=syslog.target
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After=network.target
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[Service]
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Type=simple
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# set user and group
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User=nitter
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Group=nitter
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# configure location
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WorkingDirectory=/home/nitter/nitter
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ExecStart=/home/nitter/nitter/nitter
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Restart=always
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RestartSec=15
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[Install]
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WantedBy=multi-user.target
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```
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Then enable and run the service:
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`systemctl enable --now nitter.service`
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Nitter currently prints some errors to stdout, and there is no real logging
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implemented. If you're running Nitter with systemd, you can check stdout like
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this: `journalctl -u nitter.service` (add `--follow` to see just the last 15
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lines). If you're running the Docker image, you can do this:
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`docker logs --follow *nitter container id*`
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## Contact
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Feel free to join our Freenode IRC channel at #nitter, or our
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[Matrix channel](https://matrix.to/#/#nitter:matrix.org).
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You can email me at zedeus@pm.me if you wish to contact me personally.
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