“Link in Bio” Is a Slow Knife

We’ve almost forgotten that links are powerful, and that restraining links through artificial scarcity is an absurdly coercive behavior.

But killing off links is a strategy. It may be presented as a cost-saving measure, or as a way of reducing the sharing of untrusted links. But it is a strategy, designed to keep people from the open web, the place where they can control how, and whether, someone makes money off of an audience. The web is where we can make sites that don’t abuse dat... See more

Here's the thing, though: people like links. So closed systems have to present a pressure release valve. Hashtags are a great way out.

For a closed system, those kinds of open connections are deeply dangerous. If anyone on Instagram can just link to any old store on the web, how can Instagram — meaning Facebook, Instagram’s increasingly-overbearing owner — tightly control commerce on its platform? If Instagram users could post links willy-nilly, they might even be able to connect ... See more