NYT reporter alleges FSU fans got hit-and-run story flagged as spam

Friday, the New York Times published its latest report on the Tallahassee Police Department’s questionable relationship with Florida State football. Specifically, an October car accident involving a pair of cornerbacks that could’ve been ruled a hit-and-run, based on recent local precedent and circumstances, but instead resulted in just a pair of traffic tickets. It’s one of several reports as of late highlighting apparent law enforcement discrepancies in the area.

One New York Times reporter shared the following, which multiple SB Nation staffers were then able to replicate (the link appears to now be working):

I’ve probably clicked on thousands of Twitter links in my day, with at least a dozen or so Friday alone. I don’t think I’d ever before seen a link behave that way when clicked on, and certainly not a normal-looking webpage at a prominent site like the Times.

While there’s plenty of speculation that Seminoles fans rallied to get the Times’ link marked as one that can be harmful to computers, we’ve been unable to find any concerted effort on Twitter, message boards, other social media, or elsewhere.

Update: A Twitter spokesperson says the “URL was mistakenly flagged as spam today, by an outside organization that tracks spam sources. We quickly restored access to the URL and apologize for the error.”

The New York Times adds this, in an update that for some reason references #BlameJameis:

A New York Times spokeswoman, Danielle Rhoades-Ha, said in a statement, “This is the first time an NYT link has been flagged as spam on Twitter, to the best of our knowledge.”