diff --git a/.github/workflows/links.yml b/.github/workflows/links.yml
index adc94183..d9334c4a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/links.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/links.yml
@@ -23,11 +23,14 @@ jobs:
         with:
           # Exclude the image.sc forum (which works) but returns 403 from
           # github runners and exclude relative links to other pages. Ignore
-          # the whole of the project slug README since the links are
+          # gnu.org and fsf.org because they're often down but are still the right
+          # websites to link to!
+          #
+          # Ignore the whole of the project slug README since the links are
           # necessarily not real links - i.e. demos and to be filled by
           # cookiecutter values.
           args:
-            "--verbose --exclude https://forum.image.sc/ --exclude docs/pages
+            "--verbose --exclude https://forum.image.sc/ --exclude http://www.gnu.org --exclude http://fsf.org --exclude docs/pages
             --exclude-path '{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/README.md'  -- ."
           fail: true
           jobSummary: true