[Hidden-tech] What is "browser support"?

[Marcia Yudkin]

i have a paid subscription to the NY Times and am now in a new location on my laptop where I am occasionally being blocked from some inner pages of the NY Times with an error message saying that they believe I am a robot.

This never happens from front-page stories, only on some less prominent stories.  I didn't take a screen shot, unfortunately, of the error message.

I (reasonably) believed it was the NY Times blocking me from their content.  However, they insist it is not them - it is either my ISP or my browser doing it.  This makes no sense to me.

On the error message, it suggested that I disable my VPN and ad blockers (neither of which I use), and if that didn't work, to clock the "browser support" button below.  I did that many times, to no apparent effect.

According to the NY Times, that "browser support" is not them but some other entity doing the blocking and being responsible for unblocking me.  I do not understand this at all.  Why on earth would a browser block me from accessing certain paid content and no other content?  This error message comes up ONLY with the NY Times.

One more possible clue:  This doesn't happen when I use my cellphone on the same wifi system as my laptop to access the pages in question.  In other words, if I get blocked on my laptop by something saying I am a robot, I can then read that story on my cellphone.  (Which of course is a hassle.)

Can anyone shed light on this?  If it happens again (I thought it was fixed but then I got blocked again yesterday), I will grab a screenshot, but in the meantime...???

Marcia Yudkin