Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls

It also dies behind dark patterns that prevent you from canceling the subscription. I&#x27;ve subscribed to a few publications over the years but not any more.<p>After getting burned a few times from an easy to sign up but impossible to cancel user experience I have sworn them all off.<p>I refuse to support subscriptions that require talking to a person. And waiting on hold and having to navigate the operator trying to prevent you from canceling. In my experience all media and news subscriptions do this.

An interesting dilemma for media owners - the subscription model is the future of news, yet the self suppression of reach that this necessarily entails means that media owners now have far less influence over politics than they did during the ad-funded era, hence this unsatisfactory half-way house of &#x27;its free when we want to influence your voting behaviour&#x27;<p>Also: democracy isn&#x27;t dying just because media stops have the reach it once did. People will still vote, that is not being suppressed

The irony here is insane

I think a more-specific example of guarded democracy would be politicians whom only communicate with the public via gardened walls (e.g. Facebook, Twitter).

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;2024.04.15-023815&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&#x2F;ideas&#x2F;archive&#x2F;2024&#x2F;04&#x2F;paywall-problems-media-trust-democracy&#x2F;678032&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;2024.04.15-023815&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theatlantic...</a>

How ironic that this article is behind a paywall

Is this supposed to be ironic? This article is literally behind a paywall…

Yes, it&#x27;s behind a paywall. mitchbob posted the archive link, and as I have noted, when factual information is paywalled, only lies, propaganda and conspiracy theories will be free to many.<p>A raft of subscriptions is ridiculous and dangerous. Every one increases your odds of identity theft.<p>And the idea is not new. &quot;Someone&quot; created a cool graphic a long time ago.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.ibb.co&#x2F;d663L0X&#x2F;waoi.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.ibb.co&#x2F;d663L0X&#x2F;waoi.jpg</a>