the.com/walled garden
a garden where the gardener owns the soil, the seeds, and the exit.
means a closed ecosystem where one company controls access, content, and rules, so users get convenience but not freedom.
from borrowed from actual medieval walled gardens, cultivated paradises cut off from the wilderness outside; tech seized the phrase in the 1990s for platforms like AOL that fenced users away from the open internet.
aol precedentaol built the original digital walled garden in 1990s
apple's versionapp store takes a cut, sets all rules
opposite ideaopen protocols like email have no landlord
eu responseregulators now legally force some doors open