Is there a digital divide in the fitness industry?

 The term digital divide refers to the availability to access information through the internet, and I think at this point there are people in impoverished countries and rural areas that don't have access to the internet, but I think the bigger issue that I see is that a lot of the quality health and fitness related information is paywalled behind specific journals. Currently, the bigger issue in the field of health and fitness is disinformation or misrepresentation of fitness information. Many fitness influencers make claims about research studies supporting their opinion, but because the research is paywalled (costs anywhere from 20 to 80 dollars in order to access the article without academic access/subscription, and even in those cases, some articles are STILL paywalled) the viewers/consumers can't actually read the original research themselves in order to assess the validity of the claim. 

The other problem is that oftentimes social media influencers or magazines make claims on anecdotal evidence, which is basically evidence that is a testimonial from an individual or group of individuals but was not actually recorded in a laboratory setting/scientific process, and there is actually existing research disproving those claims, but because of paywalls those of us who are scientifically literate can't show the research articles that disprove those claims. This allows fads like the carnivore diet and cold plunges to run rampant on social media, even though there is scientific evidence showing that diets high in red meat and low in fiber are generally bad for people (because they increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancers such as colorectal cancer) which directly disproves the carnivore diets claims. Similar research exists showing cold plunges don't help increase recovery after exercise and actually cause less recovery after exercise, but because articles are behind a paywall, we can't actually show the general population that cold plunges are generally useless, a waste of money, and potentially detrimental. 

Some people might think that "researchers have to make money, so paywalls make sense", but paywalls generally are put in place by the research journal itself, and none of that money goes to the researchers. Most of the money that goes into research comes from academic institutions, involving grant money, or even comes from the researchers themselves. Most researchers have to pay anywhere from 1000 to 4000 dollars in order to get their article approved for open access to the general public, and many researchers don't have that kind of money, especially after investing their time and money into their research project.