With Libya Crumbling, bit.ly's Future Looks Uncertain. Also, People Are Dying.

As chaos continues to roll across Libya, most observers and media outlets have been busy trying to make sense of the country's horrific violence and escalating death tolls. Web developer Jerry Brito, on the other hand, seems more concerned about another potential casualty of Libya's civil discord: bit.ly, and its link-shortening brethren.

As it turns out, the ".ly" suffix is a top-level domain that's under the control of the Libyan government, in the same way that ".uk" and ".jp" domains are controlled by the U.K. and Japan, respectively. Because the Libyan regime retains ultimate control over the domain, it can unilaterally decide which sites or services can use it. With the country currently in a state of massive upheaval, though, Brito is worried about bit.ly's future.

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With Libya Crumbling, bit.ly's Future Looks Uncertain. Also, People Are Dying. originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.switched.com/2011/02/24/libya-crumbling-bitly-future-uncertain/

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