> you can just clone the repo and make your own very easily
This is not the case for Nitter. It requires real X accounts to run, quite possibly hundreds or thousands for a major public instance. Creating X accounts currently requires phone number verification.
It is possible to create X accounts without a phone number. I run [service].miningtcup.me and it uses 5 accounts, none of which required phone numbers for me to create, and none of which I paid for. You just have to get creative.
This is not the case for Nitter. It requires real X accounts to run, quite possibly hundreds or thousands for a major public instance. Creating X accounts currently requires phone number verification.