Item — HN Reader

Thanks for posting that.

I find it odd that the URLs returned by the (test?) API[0] are bit.ly shortened. I'm generally not a fan of URL shorteners because I can't easily see where I'm headed, but it also seems that the government should have their own shortener URL if they're going to do that.

[0] https://www.export.gov/consolidated_screening_list#/

3 comments

It's strange especially, that the bit.ly allows you to check statistics without any form of restriction:

https://bitly.com/1I7ipyR+

bit.ly, the service that is nominally in Libya, which is, in turn, subject to various sanctions?

This is hilarious.

They do in fact have their own shortener (https://go.usa.gov/)... but after abuse, they changed it to require a login so I'm guessing there was an issue hardcoding someone's login to let the API generate them?