[rapind]

> I think it's about keeping the masses consuming rather than creating.

No, it’s about moderation cost and preventing discussions that can hurt their brand or partners or customers. Also SEO spam whackamole.

[nostromo]

For prominent news sites, controlling the narrative was a big motivation in removing comments.

Many journalists were open about how they didn’t like how comments would question the data or conclusions in their articles. There were too many heckling comments from the peanut gallery so they closed it entirely.

[johannes1234321]

For controlling the narratives comments would be great: rank agreeing comments up to show that many people share the view.

However the reality is that moderating comments is a pain. Too many people writing the most crazy stuff. It doesn't take many "passionate" commentors to ruin a section. One has to simply browse through Facebook comments on any popular topic.