diff --git a/lib/clacks/activitypub/fetcher.ex b/lib/clacks/activitypub/fetcher.ex
index cff52ff..98b37a7 100644
--- a/lib/clacks/activitypub/fetcher.ex
+++ b/lib/clacks/activitypub/fetcher.ex
@@ -40,15 +40,10 @@ defmodule Clacks.ActivityPub.Fetcher do
     headers = [Accept: "application/activity+json, application/ld+json"]
     opts = [hackney: Application.get_env(:clacks, :hackney_opts, [])]
 
-    with {:ok, %HTTPoison.Response{status_code: status_code, body: body}}
-         when status_code in 200..299 <-
-           HTTPoison.get(uri, headers, opts),
+    with {:ok, %HTTPoison.Response{body: body}} <- Clacks.HTTP.get(uri, headers, opts),
          {:ok, data} <- Jason.decode(body) do
       data
     else
-      {:ok, %HTTPoison.Response{}} ->
-        nil
-
       {:error, reason} ->
         Logger.warn("Couldn't fetch AP object at #{uri}: #{inspect(reason)}")
         nil
diff --git a/lib/clacks/http.ex b/lib/clacks/http.ex
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7eff8d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/clacks/http.ex
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+defmodule Clacks.HTTP do
+  require Logger
+
+  def get(url, headers \\ [], options \\ []) do
+    case HTTPoison.get(url, headers, options) do
+      {:ok, %HTTPoison.Response{status_code: status_code} = response}
+      when status_code in 200..299 ->
+        {:ok, response}
+
+      {:ok, %HTTPoison.Response{status_code: status_code, headers: resp_headers}}
+      when status_code in [301, 302] ->
+        resp_headers
+        |> Enum.find(fn {name, _value} -> String.downcase(name) == "location" end)
+        |> case do
+          {_, new_url} ->
+            new_url =
+              case URI.parse(new_url) do
+                %URI{host: nil, path: path} ->
+                  # relative path
+                  %URI{URI.parse(url) | path: path} |> URI.to_string()
+
+                uri ->
+                  uri
+              end
+
+            Logger.debug("Got 301 redirect from #{url} to #{new_url}")
+            get(new_url, headers, options)
+
+          _ ->
+            {:error, "Missing Location header for redirect"}
+        end
+
+      {:ok, %HTTPoison.Response{status_code: 403}} ->
+        {:error, "403 Forbidden"}
+
+      {:ok, %HTTPoison.Response{status_code: 404}} ->
+        {:error, "404 Not Found"}
+
+      {:ok, %HTTPoison.Response{status_code: status_code}} ->
+        {:error, "HTTP #{status_code}"}
+
+      {:error, %HTTPoison.Error{reason: reason}} ->
+        {:error, reason}
+    end
+  end
+end