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Javnost - The Public, Vol. 33 - 2026, No. 1
Subscription Subjects, in the Name of Democracy, Let Us All Unite! A New Point of Democratic Transformation for Social Media
There are many approaches and ideas to democratically transform social media. These per- spectives range from better and more sophisticated regulation, reforming the design of social media platforms, better education of users and social ownership of social media platforms themselves. Following in this tradition, this article offers a novel point of democratic trans- formation of social media platforms: the subscription user. The introduction of subscription packages by Meta and Snapchat indicates a changing economic logic within social media platforms that situates subscription users with a newfound economic and political power to leverage against social media platforms. Through the works of Erik Olin Wright and Bonnie Honig, subscription users embody a point of democratic transformation as the fee (or the willingness to pay the fee) can be utilised as a collective form of social power, which enables public oversight of social media platforms.