Facebook Breaks All Bit.ly Links, Marks Them as Abusive [UPDATED]

Don't try to use Bit.ly links on Facebook; they have been marked by the world's largest social network as abusive, leading to dead end pages and frustrated users.

Posting Bit.ly links on Facebook is currently impossible. If you attempt to share a link with your network, you are presented with the following message:

"This message contains blocked content that has previously been flagged as abusive or spammy. Let us know if you think this is an error."

Existing Bit.ly links are also affected. If you attempt to click on a Bit.ly link, you will be led to a Facebook abuse page (screenshot above) stating that Facebook users have reported the link as abusive.

Bit.ly is the world's most popular URL shortener, so this problem likely affects millions of links all across Facebook. It's unlikely the world's largest social network would block these links purposely. Instead, it seems that Facebook's algorithms have marked all links from the Bit.ly domain as dangerous and abusive.

We've reported the issue to Facebook and requested more details. We'll update you as more information becomes available.

Update: Bit.ly links are working properly again. Facebook says it is a spam protection measure. They pointed to a previous blog post on the subject:

"These automated systems don't just prevent spam and other annoyances. They also protect against dangerous websites that damage your computer or try to steal your information. When we're notified about one of these sites, we immediately add it to a block list and prevent Wall posts or messages that link to it. We also provide the person who's attempting to share the link with an explanation of why it's blocked and a way to correct us if we're wrong.

Sometimes, spammers try to hide their malicious links behind URL shorteners like Tiny URL or bit.ly, and in rare cases, we may temporarily block all use of a specific shortener. If you hit a block while using a URL shortener, try a different one or just use the original URL for whatever you're trying to share."