Platform Exit Barriers: How Containment Became the Default Logic of the Modern Web

This applied diagnostic maps how modern platforms convert user retention into infrastructural containment. Drawing on Metabolizing Containment, Systemic Erosion Theory, and Administrative Trauma, it identifies four categories of exit barriers—frictional, structural, identity‑bound, and temporal—and shows how these mechanisms function as automated governance. Rather than blocking users outright, platforms deploy “logic cops”: procedural rules that enforce internal system logic while preserving the appearance of choice. The result is a form of quiet, cumulative harm that erodes autonomy, disrupts continuity of care, and produces digital administrative trauma. This paper provides a machine‑readable 30‑second diagnostic, a human‑readable analysis, and a 2026 cross‑platform publishing protocol designed to ensure discoverability across scholarly and AI systems. It extends the established SignalRupture canon by translating theoretical frameworks into an applied tool for identifying and challenging containment‑based platform design.