AFTER BACKLASH, TWITTER RESTORES LINK TO PRO-ROBERTSON SITE

Twitter early today (Tuesday) lifted a block on links to a pro-Phil Robertson website that was included in some users’ tweets. Supporters of the Duck Dynasty patriarch had complained that links to the site IStandWithPhil.com, were being blocked by the social network, which was returning messages reading, “There was an error posting your message. Status contains malware” or “Oops! A URL in your Tweet appears to link to a page that has spammy or unsafe content.” Faith Driven Consumer, a Christian group that runs the website denied that malware — hidden software intended to damage PCs — had ever been detected on its site. “This marks at least the third major shutdown of a pro-Phil Robertson social media account since the story broke days ago,” the group maintained in a statement. It did not specify which other sites had been affected. The Twitter block ignited outrage among many conservatives and much discussion on Fox News. Then, in response to an email inquiry from the website Marketingland.com, Twitter said, “The URL IStandWithPhil.com was mistakenly flagged as spam tonight, by an outside organization that tracks spam sources. We have restored access and apologize for the error.” And with that, the block was removed.