Sounds like a joke doesn’t it? I had to check the date to make sure it wasn’t April 1st when I read that early this morning on Violet Blue‘s twitter stream. But it’s true.
Vb.ly which was a URL shortening service much like tinyurl.com, bit.ly, is.gd, and more touted itself as “the internet’s first and only sex-positive url shortener.” It was a safe haven for those of us in the adult industry to shorten URL’s for sex education, pornography, or any other adult related materials without fear of removal. In other words, when I shortened a URL I didn’t have to worry that a few hours later that new link wouldn’t connect to the original link.
Unfortunately, on September 23rd vb.ly was deleted by the domain registry controlling the Libyan domain space .ly. It turns out that part of the rules and regulations for running a .ly domain include following all Libyan Islamic Sharia Law. Based off this law, Violet Blue’s URL shortening service was deemed offensive because the image on the site was of her in a sleeveless outfit drinking a beer and because the site explicitly states that the shortening service is “sex-positive” which was translated to mean adult in nature.
I’m pretty upset about the issue myself being a loyal vb.ly user. I’m not sure where to go next and I fear that any .ly shorteners may start to impose sex negative rules.
Read more about the issue on Techyum and on Ben Metcalfe’s blog.
Follow us on twitter @mysexprofessor. You can also follow Garnet Joyce, the author of this post, @GarnetJoyce.
