Bitly Under Fire for Blocking a Crypto Link in Andreas Antonopoulos’ Book

Andreas Antonopoulos, the well-known crypto expert and author, was briefly at war with Bitly. He received a notice from one of his Twitter followers that the link shortener service blocked one of the links in his book.

Therefore, Antonopoulos reacted publicly on Twitter, demanding an explanation: Hey @Bitly, Why are you blocking bit.ly links to cryptocurrency sites? I’m about to publish my 4th book and it has about 200 bit.ly links in it.

He continued with a threat to replace all the links in the upcoming book, Mastering Ethereum, using a competitor’s service.

Hey @Bitly,

Why are you blocking https://t.co/9gk4wWPQnN links to crypto-currency sites?

I’m about to publish my 4th book and it has about 200 https://t.co/9gk4wWPQnN links in it. If you are going to block links, I will need to remove all 200 and replace them with a competitor https://t.co/Xg4FkemcA7

— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) November 3, 2018

A Quick Response from the Crypto Community

News of the mishap spread like wildfire among Antonopoulos’ followers, generating over 50 replies to his original post. Most of the replies suggest finding new, decentralised solutions for link shortening.

Not your keys, not your bitcoin? Not your shortner, not your link, commented one follower. Other comments followed the same train of thought and demanded explanations from Bitly.

The overall feeling is that this is yet another aspect that needs the blockchain approach. In addition, some users suggested that the entire crypto community should stop relying on any traditional, proprietary online services and start developing new ones.

The Root of the Problem

The Bitly vs. crypto links Twitter feud started when one of Antonopoulos’ followers shared a print screen image indicating that the link shortener warned him against opening an URL.

The warning message suggests that the URL included in Antonopoulos’ book may contain inappropriate content, or even spam or malicious code or could lead to a phishing website.

Andreas Antonopoulos, author of 3 popular books on cryptocurrencies, is getting ready to publish his latest work – Mastering Ethereum. According to one of his tweets, he’ll release the book in less than 4 weeks.

The short time left until the official release is probably what made him want to replace Bitly by a competing link shortening service “ASAP”.

What (reliable, neutral, established) link-shortening service can I use that doesn’t filter/block links based on a broken blacklisting service? I need to replace all @Bitly links in my book ASAP.

Don’t say “roll your own”, it takes a lot to maintain infrastructure like that.

— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) November 3, 2018

Much Ado About Nothing?

Two days after the original tweet from Antonopoulos, Bitly responded explaining that the links were inadvertently blocked and that the issue had been resolved.

Hey @aantonop These links were inadvertently blocked, but the issue was resolved over the weekend. They all should be working now. Please reach out to us via [email protected] if you are still having issues with these links.

— Bitly (@Bitly) November 5, 2018

That same day, Antonopoulos complained on Twitter about the state of crypto media in regards to covering his issue with Bitly. He called out one of the well-known crypto publications, saying their article was based on speculation by misreading a single tweet.

The state of crypto media, below. A bullshit headline, based on speculation by misreading a single tweet, turned into fact-free unconfirmed “articles”, then copied to a dozen sites spreading the bullshit far and wide:https://t.co/LK2vRIiX8Z

— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) November 5, 2018

The problem was that some publications were mentioning 200 blocked links, while in fact, it was only one. And that’s exactly what Andreas was referring to when criticising crypto media.

It could be that this was all a fuss about nothing. However, according to Antonopoulos’ tweets, it did seem like it was a big deal for him, as well as the crypto community in general. At least at one point. In one of his tweets to Bitly, he asked: What assures me (and the rest of the crypto-currency community) that this won’t happen again? What steps have been taken to ensure it doesn’t?

In response, Bitly explained that There was no particular filter triggered in this situation. The link was blocked in error and once we were alerted to the issue our team unblocked it. So, it looks like everything has been taken care of. And, as long as it stays that way, you’ll soon be able to enjoy reading Mastering Ethereum without any issues.

—

If you are looking for some great crypto reads, check out our list of must-read books. To keep up with the latest crypto and blockchain news and updates, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.