diff --git a/plugins/newsdownloader.koplugin/epubdownloadbackend.lua b/plugins/newsdownloader.koplugin/epubdownloadbackend.lua
index fc2e7bb8b..a7c1bac60 100644
--- a/plugins/newsdownloader.koplugin/epubdownloadbackend.lua
+++ b/plugins/newsdownloader.koplugin/epubdownloadbackend.lua
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ local EpubDownloadBackend = {
    -- accessible here so that caller can know it's a user dismiss.
    dismissed_error_code = "Interrupted by user",
 }
-local max_redirects = 5; --prevent infinite redirects
 
 local FeedCache = CacheSQLite:new{
     slots = 500,
@@ -158,19 +157,13 @@ local function build_cookies(cookies)
 end
 
 -- Get URL content
-local function getUrlContent(url, cookies, timeout, maxtime, redirectCount, add_to_cache)
-    logger.dbg("getUrlContent(", url, ",", cookies, ", ", timeout, ",", maxtime, ",", redirectCount, ",", add_to_cache, ")")
-    if not redirectCount then
-        redirectCount = 0
-    elseif redirectCount == max_redirects then
-        error("EpubDownloadBackend: reached max redirects: ", redirectCount)
-    end
+local function getUrlContent(url, cookies, timeout, maxtime, add_to_cache)
+    logger.dbg("getUrlContent(", url, ",", cookies, ", ", timeout, ",", maxtime, ",", add_to_cache, ")")
 
     if not timeout then timeout = 10 end
     logger.dbg("timeout:", timeout)
 
     local sink = {}
-    local parsed = socket_url.parse(url)
     socketutil:set_timeout(timeout, maxtime or 30)
     local request = {
         url     = url,
@@ -207,23 +200,6 @@ local function getUrlContent(url, cookies, timeout, maxtime, redirectCount, add_
         logger.warn("No HTTP headers:", status or code or "network unreachable")
         return false, "Network or remote server unavailable"
     end
-    if not code or code < 200 or code > 299 then -- all 200..299 HTTP codes are OK
-        if code and code > 299 and code < 400  and headers and headers.location then -- handle 301, 302...
-           local redirected_url = headers.location
-           local parsed_redirect_location = socket_url.parse(redirected_url)
-           if not parsed_redirect_location.host then
-             parsed_redirect_location.host = parsed.host
-             parsed_redirect_location.scheme = parsed.scheme
-             redirected_url = socket_url.build(parsed_redirect_location)
-           end
-           logger.dbg("getUrlContent: Redirecting to url: ", redirected_url)
-           return getUrlContent(redirected_url, timeout, maxtime, redirectCount + 1, add_to_cache)
-        else
-           error("EpubDownloadBackend: Don't know how to handle HTTP response status:", status or code)
-        end
-        logger.warn("HTTP status not okay:", status or code)
-        return false, status or code
-    end
     if headers and headers["content-length"] then
         -- Check we really got the announced content size
         local content_length = tonumber(headers["content-length"])
@@ -281,7 +257,7 @@ end
 
 function EpubDownloadBackend:getResponseAsString(url, cookies, add_to_cache)
     logger.dbg("EpubDownloadBackend:getResponseAsString(", url, ")")
-    local success, content = getUrlContent(url, cookies, nil, nil, nil, add_to_cache)
+    local success, content = getUrlContent(url, cookies, nil, nil, add_to_cache)
     if (success) then
         return content
     else