What are dark UX patterns?

A user is manipulated and redirected using dark patterns in user experience design to do an imposed action that they did not intend to complete. The gated content that prevents you from accessing a website since signing up is the only option if you want to continue is a classic example of a dark pattern.

Dark Patterns are deceptive UX/UI interactions that are intended to fool or mislead people into performing actions that they do not want to. After the ecommerce explosion on the web, this word was developed around 2010. Designers and business partners began developing deceptive user interfaces to deceive customers in order to increase sales, obtain subscriptions, and meet transactional goals, etc.