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Social media giant Twitter slapped a warning on links to firearms news outlet The Reload, before removing the label several hours later Saturday.
Stephen Gutowski, founder of The Reload, said Saturday his website was being unfairly labeled “unsafe” by Twitter. Gutowski, and others offered screenshots showing a pop-up warning about the site when clicked.
“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,” Gutowski wrote on social media Saturday morning. “The site is operating normally. What is going on?”
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Around 11 a.m. ET, Gutowski began telling social media followers that Twitter had fixed the issue and The Reload was no longer being labeled as a potentially “unsafe” site. Users reported the ability to access the site without the pop-up message.
A Twitter warning appeared for users clicking on links to firearms news website The Reload, Saturday, April 23, 2022.
(Twitter)
“It appears Twitter has removed the false ‘unsafe’ website warning from @TheReloadSite’s stories. Please let me know if you keep seeing it,” Gutowski later posted, updating his followers.
Stephen Gutowski launched firearm news site The Reload.
(Stephen Gutowski )
“Thank you to everyone who helped raise notice on this,” he added. “There’s no way Twitter would’ve reacted this quickly without your help!”
Gutowski claimed vindication of his suspicions after The Reload reportedly stopped returning an “unsafe” label. Gutowski compiled a variety of screenshots showing the same warning message and had comparison data of Reload links from other social media sites.
A tweet by an account under the name Trenton Kennedy claimed to be an employee of Twitter’s communications department. The unverified Trenton Kennedy account claimed he was “looking into” the matter and would get back to Gutowski.
“[The unverified Trenton Kennedy account] is the only response I had from anyone at Twitter,” Gutowski explained. “They acknowledged the situation and said they were looking into it. But I have lots of screenshots of the warning applied to every link to The Reload.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Twitter for comment but did not receive a response.
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Gutkowski added that he hopes “Twitter soon explains why this happened” for the benefit of all independent publishers on the platform.
“As a small, independent publication, we rely on the ability of our readers to share our stories in order to help inform the public,” Gutowski told Fox News Digital. “We aren’t asking for any special treatment, just fair treatment.”
