Web archivists scrambling to save US public data from deletion
WASHINGTON: As US President Donald Trump's administration purges public records since storming back to power, experts and volunteers are preserving thousands of web pages and government sites devoted to climate change, health rights and other issues.
Resources on AIDS prevention and care, weather records, references to ethnic or gender minorities: numerous databases were destroyed or modified after Trump signed an executive order in January declaring diversity, equality and inclusion programs and policies within the federal governmentto be illegal.
More than 3,000 pages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site were taken down and more than 1,000 from the Justice Department's website, Paul Schroeder, president of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, told AFP.
404 error
Some websites have disappeared altogether, such as that of the US development agency USAID, which has been effectively shuttered as Trump slashes US aid to poor countries.
And the National Children's Health Survey page displays a "404 error" message.
Federal agencies must now avoid hundreds of words such as "woman", "disability", "racism", "climate crisis" and "pollution" in their communications, the New York Times reported.
"The focus has been on removing language related to environmental (or) climate justice on websites, as well as removing data and tools related to environmental (or) climate justice," Eric Nost, a geographer at Canada's University of Guelph and member of the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) told AFP.
"This Trump administration moved more quickly and with a greater scope than the previous Trump administration," he said.
EDGI, a consortium of academics and volunteers, began safeguarding public climate and environmental data after Trump's first election in 2016.
Among the tools used are the WayBack Machine from the non-profit Internet Archive, or Perma.cc, developed by the Library Innovation Lab at Harvard Law School.
These systems, which long predate Trump's election, help "courts and law journals preserve the web pages they cite to," said Jack Cushman, director of the Library Innovation Lab.
Long used by journalists, researchers and NGOs, web archiving enables a page to be preserved, even if it were to disappear from the internet or be modified later.
This data is then stored on servers in a large digital library, allowing anyone to consult it freely.
Volunteer work
Archiving initiatives have multiplied, expanded and coordinated since Trump's return to the White House.
The Data Rescue Project (DRP) brought together several organizations to save as much data as possible.
"We were concerned about data being deleted. We wanted to try to see what we could do to rescue them," Lynda Kellam, a university librarian and DRP organiser, told AFP.
She first launched the project as an online Google doc in February – a simple word-processing tool listing downloaded PDF files, original dataset titles and archived links.
It is now maintained by volunteers "who are working after work" to keep it running, said Kellam.
"We are all volunteers, even myself. We have other jobs so that has been challenging," Kellam added.
The data collection work, largely carried out by associations and university libraries, is threatened by a lack of resources.
"Funding is the key issue... as the library and archives community rushes to take on a larger preservation challenges than ever before," Cushman said.
"We need to fund coordinators for the ongoing effort, new tools, and new homes for the data."
Harvard is also battling the ire of the Trump administration, which has cut federal grants to the prestigious university and threatened its tax-exempt status after it refused to comply with the president's demands to accept government oversight.
"Data is the modern lighthouse, helping us plan our lives: it shows where we are so we can plan where we're going," Cushman said.
"Businesses, individuals, and governments will suffer greatly from any failure to collect and share reliable data on weather and climate, health, justice, housing, employment, and so on." – AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malaysian Reserve
22 minutes ago
- Malaysian Reserve
Trump warns Musk not to back Democrats as Vance aims for detente
PRESIDENT Donald Trump said Elon Musk will pay 'very serious consequences' if the billionaire tech mogul funds Democratic candidates that challenge lawmakers who backed Republicans' tax-and-spending bill. Trump, in a phone interview with NBC News' Kristen Welker, also said he has no desire to repair his relationship with Musk. The two had a public falling out on Thursday. 'I gave him breaks in my first administration, and saved his life in my first administration, I have no intention of speaking to him,' Trump said in the interview, calling Musk 'disrespectful' and that he assumes the relationship is over. The world's richest man backed Trump and Vice President JD Vance's election campaign in 2024 and headed the Department of Government Efficiency's cost-cutting efforts. His alliance with Trump broke apart in dramatic fashion, however, after Musk spoke out against the tax bill backed by the president. Musk has argued the bill would add to the deficit and undermine his efforts to slash government spending. Trump and his allies, in turn, have pointed to the bill's plan to phase out electric vehicle tax credits that benefit electric carmaker Tesla Inc. as the reason for Musk's outrage. Trump also told NBC that he doesn't think Musk has the power to sink the tax bill and said he is 'very confident' the measure will pass by July 4. Vance expressed hopes that Musk eventually 'comes back into the fold' during an interview on the podcast 'This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von' released on Saturday. Trump had encouraged Vance to speak diplomatically about Musk before his appearance on the podcast, according to a person familiar with the situation who shared details on condition of anonymity. The public feud shaved $34 billion from Musk's personal net worth in a single day, while Tesla lost $153 billion of market value on Thursday. Trump said he hadn't given his earlier suggestion about canceling Musk's companies' federal contracts any more thought, according to NBC. 'I'd be allowed to do that,' he said. 'I haven't given it any thought.' –BLOOMBERG
The Sun
27 minutes ago
- The Sun
Colombian presidential contender in critical condition after shooting
BOGOTÁ: A prominent Colombian right-wing presidential candidate is in critical condition after being shot three times during a campaign event in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. Thirty-nine-year-old Senator Miguel Uribe was speaking to supporters in the capital when a gunman shot him twice in the head and once in the knee before being detained. Images from the scene showed Uribe slumped against the hood of a white car, smeared with blood, as a group of men tried to hold him and stop the bleeding. A security guard managed to detain the suspected attacker, a minor who is believed to be 15 years old. Uribe was airlifted to the hospital in 'critical condition' where he is undergoing a 'neurosurgical' and 'peripheral vascular procedure,' the Santa Fe Clinic in Bogota confirmed. Uribe's wife posted on his X account that 'he is fighting for his life at this moment.' Police director Carlos Fernando Triana said the suspect was injured in the affray and was receiving treatment. Two others -- a man and a woman -- were also wounded, and a Glock-style firearm was seized. 'Our hearts are broken, Colombia hurts,' Carolina Gomez, a 41-year-old businesswoman, told AFP as she prayed with candles for Uribe's health. ' Day of pain' The motive for the attack is not yet publicly known. Colombia's defence minister Pedro Sanchez vowed to use law enforcement's full capabilities and offered a roughly US$725,000 reward for information about who was behind the shooting. In a video address to the nation posted on social media, President Gustavo Petro also promised investigations to find the perpetrators of the 'day of pain'. 'What matters most today is that all Colombians focus with the energy of our hearts, with our will to live ... on ensuring that Dr Miguel Uribe stays alive.' In an earlier statement, Petro condemned the violence as 'an attack not only against his person, but also against democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia.' The shooting was similarly condemned across the political spectrum and from overseas, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling it 'a direct threat to democracy.' But Rubio also pointed blame at Petro, claiming the attack was the 'result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government.' 'President Petro needs to dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials,' the top US diplomat said. Uribe, a strong critic of Petro, is a member of the Democratic Center party, which announced last October his intention to run in the 2026 presidential election. Authorities said that there was no specific threat made against the politician before the incident. Like many public figures in Colombia, Uribe had close personal protection. The country is home to several armed guerrilla groups, powerful cartels and has a long history of political violence. Shot 'from behind' Uribe is the son of Diana Turbay, a famed Colombian journalist who was killed after being kidnapped by Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel. One of his grandfathers was former Colombia president Julio Cesar Turbay, who led the country from 1978 to 1982. Supporters gathered outside the facility, lighting candles and clutching crucifixes as they prayed for his recovery. Uribe's party said in a statement Saturday that an 'armed individual' had shot the senator from behind. The party leader, former president Alvaro Uribe, described the shooting as an attack against 'a hope for the country.' Miguel Uribe -- who is not related to Alvaro -- has been a senator since 2022. He previously served as Bogota's government secretary and city councilor. He also ran for city mayor in 2019, but lost that election.
The Star
38 minutes ago
- The Star
Japan flexes its military muscle at China, and Trump
OKINAWA: The ship-slaying missiles of the Japanese army's 7th Regiment are mounted aboard dark green trucks that are easy to move and conceal, but for now, the soldiers are making no effort to hide them. Created in 2024, the fledgling regiment and its roving missile batteries occupy a hilltop base on the island of Okinawa that can be seen for miles. The visibility is intentional. The 7th is one of two new missile regiments that the army, called the Ground Self-Defence Force, has placed along the islands on Japan's south-western flank in response to an increasingly robust Chinese navy that frequently sails through waters near Japan. 'Our armaments are a show of force to deter an enemy from coming,' said Colonel Yohei Ito, the regiment's commander. China is not their only target. The display is also for the United States, and particularly President Donald Trump, who has criticised Japan for relying too heavily on the presence of US military bases for its security. The missiles are part of a defence build-up that is central to Japan's strategy for appealing to Mr Trump. While Tokyo is now deep in negotiations with Washington over lifting new tariffs, its top priority is improving security ties. On June 6, Japan's trade envoy, Ryosei Akazawa, met for 2½ hours in Washington with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Mr Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce, for talks on a tariff-lifting deal that will probably see Tokyo promise large purchases of energy, computer chips and weapons. By adding new missiles and other advanced weapons, both American-made and domestically developed, Japan is transforming its long-restricted military into a potent force with the skills and technology to operate alongside America's ships and soldiers, to demonstrate that Japan is an indispensable partner. 'We want to be sure the US has our backs, and enhancing our conventional military capabilities is the way to do that,' said Nobukatsu Kanehara, who was deputy head of national security policy from 2014 to 2019 under then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 'We want to show President Trump that we are a valuable and essential ally.' Given the growing military strength of nearby China and also North Korea, Japan wants to upgrade the defence alliance with the US by becoming a fuller-fledged military partner and moving further from the pacifism enshrined in its constitution adopted after World War II. With the war in Ukraine stirring fears of a similar Chinese move on the democratic island of Taiwan, Japan announced in 2022 it would double spending on national security to about 2 per cent of gross domestic product. The resulting defence build-up is now under way. Japan is buying expensive weapon systems from the US like the F-35B stealth fighter and Tomahawk cruise missiles that will give Japan the ability to strike targets on enemy soil for the first time since 1945. The spending is also revitalising Japan's own defence industry. At a trade show in May near Tokyo, Japanese manufacturers displayed weapons currently under development, including a hypersonic missile, a laser system for shooting down drones, and a jet fighter to be built with Italy and Britain. Japan is also demonstrating a new resolve to fight alongside the US during a future crisis. When he visited Tokyo this spring, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth praised a plan to create a new 'war-fighting headquarters' in Tokyo where Japanese and American commanders will work side by side. 'During our discussions, I told him how Japan is making our own strong efforts to drastically strengthen our defence capabilities,' Mr Gen Nakatani, the Japanese defence minister, said after meeting with Hegseth. 'We face the most severe security environment that Japan has encountered since the end of the war.' It has been made even more severe by the uncertainty from Washington. While Japan's leaders and policymakers see strong support from Mr Hegseth and other hardliners on China, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, they remain worried about America First isolationists who could try to pull back the US military in Asia. There is also the unpredictability of Trump. Their biggest fear is that the US President might suddenly strike a grand strategic deal with China's leader, Xi Jinping, that would cede Japan and its neighbours to Beijing's sphere of influence. 'We need to convince Trump and the Maga (Make America Great Again) camp that Japan is too good to give away,' said Professor Satoru Mori, a professor of international politics at Keio University in Tokyo. 'It's in the US' interest not to let Japan fall into China's sphere.' The Chinese government has criticised Japan's acquisition of offensive weapons as a return to wartime militarism. Japan is hedging its bets by reaching out to other partners. In addition to the fighter plane jointly developed with Britain and Italy, it has strengthened defence relations with Australia, offering to sell it advanced Japanese-made frigates. Tokyo also sent a warship and soldiers to the Philippines in May to join a multinational military exercise for the first time. If Washington proves unreliable, Japan has an ultimate fallback: tonnes of plutonium stockpiled from its civilian nuclear power industry, which it could use to build a nuclear arsenal of its own. So far, the national trauma from the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has kept such an option off the table. 'We need to think about a Plan B, if the US does withdraw from Asia,' said Mr Kazuto Suzuki, director of the Institute of Geo-economics, a Tokyo-based think-tank. -- NEW YORK TIMES via The Straits Times/ANN
