Well, the downvotes got me to investigate further. It seems it was the Chrome extension JSON Inspector ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mfnjijpckfec

Well, the downvotes got me to investigate further. It seems it was the Chrome extension JSON Inspector ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mfnjijpckfecpgchobgcfndicenjldoe https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mfnjijpckfecpgchob... ) that was inserting the target="_blank" only on this page for the article's link.