Requests

These requests come from domestic and foreign governments, including law enforcement agencies.

Requests from US entities

In 2022, we received both court orders and government subpoenas:

Requests from foreign governments

“Non-domesticated requests” refer to requests directly from a foreign entity, while “domesticated requests” refer to those requests from a United States court on behalf of a foreign entity.

Responses

We responded to all US requests, as well as domesticated foreign requests, as required by law. We did not respond to any non-domesticated foreign requests.

Combating abuse

The most common way bad actors attempt to abuse the Bitly system is by shortening malicious links. The majority of these are intended for use in phishing attacks. A smaller number are used for malware and spam.

Our Trust & Safety team enforces our policies through a combination of internal technologies, third-party vendors who specialize in abuse detection, trusted tech partners, and NGOs.

We maintain up-to-date Terms of Service, an Acceptable Use Policy, and the Bitly Code of Conduct to communicate our values and set enforceable guidelines for how our service can be used.

Summary

This Transparency Report detailed the number of legal requests from domestic and foreign governmental entities received in 2022, as well as the number of requests we responded to.
We will continue to release Transparency Reports into the future. We also encourage the public to report abusive links through this form.