On Tuesday, Twitter apologized for “mistakenly” blocking the iStandWithPhil.com website, which meant users who supported the Duck Dynasty patriarch who was suspended from A&E for supposedly “anti-gay” remarks could not link to the site in their tweets.
The petition demands the reinstatement of Phil Robertson and has nearly 250,000 signatures.
“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,” Twitter told Marketing Land on Tuesday.
Twitters users expressed outrage when they discovered that the site was blocked and demanded that it be reinstated on Twitter. Faith Driven Consumer, which runs the website, noted on Monday that three sites that supported Robertson had been blocked and implied that Twitter may have intentionally blocked them.
Twitter generally does not act to block content until receiving a report from another user or group of users,” the Christian advocacy group said in a statement. “That complaint is then reviewed by Twitter, who decides whether to take action or not. Normally, the blocked account holder receives an email notifying them of the action being taken.