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Comment by liscovich | Hacker News Reader

Original WSJ article: "Twelve Days in Xinjiang: How China’s Surveillance State Overwhelms Daily Life"

https://www.wsj.com/articles/twelve-days-in-xinjiang-how-chi...

If you don't have WSJ subscription, paste the title into FB's search bar, and open the link via search results to bypass the paywall.

View on HN

Assuming "FB" means Facebook, what if one doesn't have a Facebook account?

Or manually use FB's redirect:

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https://www.wsj.com/articles/...

Nope - paywall still present.

Worked for me, I use Facebook though (may not work if you do not have a Facebook account?)

Worked for me too, and I don't have an FB account.

mnw21cam, maybe you're blocking the Referer?

If you're browsing with Firefox, the "Bypass Paywalls" Add-on is really neat. No further workarounds necessary.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypasspaywall...

Presumably publications like the WSJ know about these bypasses and tolerate them unlike the The UK Daily Telegraph which doesn't for its 'premium' articles. However how is using them on a regular basis not fraudulent?

If I were a regular WSJ reader, I'd subscribe, but I'm only reading the occasional WSJ article that's linked here on HN. Having the Add-On bypass it is more convenient than using the FB redirect snipplet and that's about it. If the WSJ doesn't want any non-subscribers to read their articles, then it's on them not to provide exceptions (FB referrer).

For me, it boils down to reading between 1-3 WSJ articles a month by bypassing the paywall or reading none at all if they don't allow me to, since I don't consider the consumption worth the price (which includes handing over data to a US corporation) I'd have to pay. That money is better spent on a local news outlet that provides me with news I consider more relevant to myself.

Thanks, we've changed the url to that from http://www.wsj.com/video/life-inside-chinas-total-surveillan.... It's generally better to post a link to the host article. WSJ is an edge case, but paywalls with workarounds are ok (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html) and users almost always usually post workarounds in the thread.

What is even the point of posting a paywalled article to a forum like this? Anyone who puts content behind a login does not wish it to be linked in an open forum. Period. If the WSJ wants their articles shared and discussed, they should build and maintain their own HN behind that paywall and keep it there.

Your suggestion of going via FB makes things even worse. Now there are two walls involved in keeping others out.

Or am supposed to keep a plethora of logins at hand just to participate in an open community?

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