The Cost of Accessing Information Online

The internet has fundamentally broken the promise of free information by hiding everything behind

a digital wall that demands your data as payment. You know the feeling perfectly.

You click a link, you are ready to see the content, and suddenly everything stops.

You are staring at a blank screen that simply tells you to enable JavaScript and cookies to continue.

It seems like a boring tech error, but it is actually the most aggressive gatekeeper we face

every single day. This message is the internet’s way of saying that you are not holding

up your end of the bargain. We tend to think of browsing as a passive activity,

like watching TV, but this error proves that is a lie. The website refuses to load a single