Today, Explained
Breaking the internet
Feb 19, 2025
Addie Robertson is a Senior Editor at The Verge, and Mark Graham is the Director of the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive. They dive into the critical issue of digital decay and link rot, exploring how government actions can erase important online information. Discussions reveal the challenges faced by archivists in preserving digital history, the vital role of the Wayback Machine, and the societal implications of losing access to foundational data. They highlight the fragility of web resources and the urgent need for reliable archives in an evolving digital landscape.
28:05
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Quick takeaways
- The Trump administration's actions to purge government websites threaten digital transparency and accessibility of crucial information on policies like reproductive rights.
- The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine is essential for preserving web content, but challenges remain in determining which digital records are historically significant.
Deep dives
Government Website Changes and Censorship
Recent executive orders have led to significant changes on U.S. government websites, emphasizing a return to what some officials call a merit-based and colorblind approach. This has resulted in the removal of information regarding reproductive rights and other topics deemed inconsistent with the administration's ideology. Certain pages, including those from the CDC, have been actively scrubbed to comply with new directives, reflecting a larger cultural and political battle within the government. This unprecedented data purging aims to align government communication with specific political views, raising concerns about transparency and access to information.
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