About Twitter's Link Service (http://t.co)

Twitter’s link service at http://t.co is used to better protect users from malicious sites that engage in spreading malware, phishing attacks, and other harmful activity.

A link converted by Twitter’s link service is checked against a list of potentially dangerous sites. When there’s a match, users can be warned before they continue:

• Our link service will also be used to measure information such as how many times a link has been clicked
• This information will eventually become an important quality signal for our resonance algorithm, which determines how relevant and interesting each Tweet is when compared to similar Tweets

How the Link Service Works

• Links shared on Twitter.com will be shortened to a http://t.co link
• You'll see the message "link will appear shortened" next to the Tweet button; however, these links will display the site that a link directs to, instead of a t.co URL
• All links included in Direct Message notification emails already pass through our link service and are converted to a http://t.co link
• Please note: t.co links are neither private nor public. Anyone with the link will be able to view the content

You can still use a URL shortener (like bit.ly) to shorten links

If you’re wanting to shorten links to share with others, please see this help page on using URL Shorteners. You can continue to use a URL shortener to shorten links and any tracking metrics (like those from bit.ly) will continue to work as they did previously.

The link service at http://t.co is only used on links posted on Twitter and is not available as a general shortening service.

Learn more about how URLs are flagged as potentially harmful

If the URL of a site you manage has been flagged, please see this help page about flagged URLs for more information.

Still Need Help? Contact Support.