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Registrant State/Province:Arizona
The political irony of the location of the domain company is that it is websites such as (link tracking not allowed) that have enabled people within Libya to spread information via Twitter in the face of the general ban on international media in the country.
Probably the most famous of all the websites, (link tracking not allowed), is based in New York and paid only $75 for the domain name in 2007, choosing the name not because of any links with Libya but because: "It's short and it is evocative of small bits, loosely coupled".
Bit.ly uses five different "root servers" with only two based in the African state. For the website to be shut down it would need all five servers to simultaneously stop working. With two in Oregon, USA and one in the Netherlands, it will remain virtually impossible for Libya to stop videos being sent via the website.
As of June 2010 all .ly domains shorter than four characters could be registered only by Libyan companies and individuals. One website, vb.ly, was closed down because of its adult content, but it appears that the fact (link tracking not allowed) has international based servers has meant that similar action has not been possible.
reply to post by lpowell0627
It was my understanding that from the start we were told that these protests began via a US created website. However, my further understanding is that they were privately run companies versus a US government backed site