Stephen Gutowski’s website The Reload is an invaluable resource for firearms reporting and analysis, and earlier today it was noticed that links to the site on Twitter were bringing up a warning:
Is Twitter blocking The Reload for you guys too? https://t.co/7YZRCZOI5k
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 23, 2022
More Twitter interference for no reason at all? Go figure:
Why is Twitter blocking The Reload? We were just cited by nearly every news outlet in the country for breaking news on President Biden's handling of the ATF. The site is operating normally. What is going on? pic.twitter.com/quqPqJfib1
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 23, 2022
The Reload's security software isn't throwing any warnings. Neither are Google or Facebook. This has to be some kind of issue with Twitter specifically. Did somebody mass report The Reload to limit our stories on here? This was our latest: https://t.co/gEqcHmcSDq
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 23, 2022
I've filed a correction request with Twitter. I'm not at all confident they will act quickly, though. Please file a correction to help get The Reload back on here. https://t.co/SVYiy5oawh
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 23, 2022
If we had to guess, somebody was unhappy with the way Gutowski and The Reload shoot down false narratives about guns and the 2nd Amendment.
There's absolutely nothing on The Reload that qualifies for this warning message from what I've read on their site. It certainly sounds like this message can be applied as the result of mass reporting, though. pic.twitter.com/Yd1lXf62VA
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 23, 2022
If anyone has a contact at Twitter they can connect me with, that would be greatly appreciated.
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 23, 2022
This is another reason to sign up for The Reload's newsletter. Social media sites often have questionable content moderation policies with absolutely abismal enforcement mechanisms that are commonly misapplied and abused. https://t.co/cNu9RFsQzd
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 23, 2022
The Reload is a small publication. We don't have millions to spend on advertising. Twitter is one of the most significant ways our stories are able to be seen by people not already on our newsletter. This will severely damage our reach & ability to even operate if it's not fixed.
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 23, 2022
Also, it's not an https vs http issue. All links to The Reload coming from Twitter are receiving this unsafe website warning. https://t.co/hWXndtbeV3
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 23, 2022
Clicking links brought up a warning:
Yes. pic.twitter.com/J5dGWKGXZL
— Erik Soderstrom (@soderstrom) April 23, 2022
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) April 23, 2022
As far as I can tell, they've put that warning on every single link to any part of The Reload.
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 23, 2022
That did appear to be the case.
.@TwitterSupport is making it harder for people to see reliable reporting on gun issues. Please confirm you’re getting the falsely-assigned warning at this link, then follow the link in the tweet below to report it to @twitter : https://t.co/HokeCympdu #2a #1a https://t.co/QpgpuJv6EI
— James Dickey (@jamesdickey) April 23, 2022
https://twitter.com/four4thefire/status/1517872017948745728
Eventually the warnings were removed:
I think it stopped!
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) April 23, 2022
You're not getting it anymore?
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 23, 2022
Twitter said they’re looking into it:
Twitter comms guy here 👋🏼 Looking into this and will come back to you.
— Trenton Kennedy (@TrentonJKennedy) April 23, 2022
The warnings seem to have been removed now. Any update on what happened?
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 23, 2022
Stay tuned. Twitter will likely say it was a “mistake.”
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