Jerry Brito, director of the technology policy program at the Mercatus Center, notes that the unrest in Libya could have an effect on the rest of the world, too — at least that part of it that participates in social networking. Writing at time.com, Brito notes that Twitter’s default URL shortening service — often necessary to remain within the site’s 140-character limit — is bit.ly. Most people don’t realize that the “.ly” in the domain name stands for Libya, just as “.uk” domains are used for sites based in the United Kingdom. Brito reassures us Tweeps that our shortened URLs are safe — for now.