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Nestled in a former Christian Science church, the Internet Archive stands as a digital fortress, preserving our online history. More relevant than ever, this nonprofit safeguards billions of web pages, news articles, and cultural artifacts.
The Wayback Machine: A Time Capsule of the Internet
Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive is home to the Wayback Machine, your portal to nearly three decades of web history. While millions visit its online address daily, few know its physical location: a repurposed church in San Francisco.
Inside this impressive building, rows of servers hum, diligently recording the World Wide Web. Every day, about 100 terabytes of data, a billion URLs, are uploaded, preserving our digital heritage.
Archiving in a Changing Landscape
The Internet Archive plays a crucial role, especially when information disappears from the web. After President Trump’s inauguration, many government web pages vanished. The Archive stepped in, cataloging 73,000 expunged pages from U.S. government websites within six weeks.
Mark Graham, Wayback Machine director, highlighted the importance of preserving records like the interactive timeline of the January 6th events, which was removed from the congressional committee’s website. “It’s part of our history,” Graham emphasized, “worthy of preservation and exploration.”
While website changes are typical with new administrations, the scope and pace of deletions under Trump were unprecedented.
A Surge in Visitors and Support
Since Trump’s second inauguration, the Internet Archive has seen a surge in visitors—journalists, researchers, and concerned citizens. Brewster Kahle, the Archive’s founder, noted a “groundswell of support” as people rally to preserve threatened data.
Nancy Krieger, a Harvard epidemiologist, likened the data purge to “a digital book burning.” She collaborated with other scientists to preserve disappearing federal health data.
Graham’s team is proactively capturing at-risk material, focusing on terms like “DEI” that were flagged for examination.
Humanity at the Core
The Internet Archive prioritizes people. Clay sculptures of staff members line the walls, celebrating the individuals behind the collections.
Kahle emphasized the importance of public participation: “It’s [important] to have people understand how they can participate, that it’s not something happening to them. It’s ours.”
Combating Digital Decay
Avinash Krishna, a long-time user, visited the Archive after noticing how many Wikipedia links relied on its resources. He lamented the growing problem of “link rot,” the epidemic of broken links.
The Internet Archive rescues an average of 10,000 dead links on Wikipedia daily, having fixed over 23 million in total.
Kahle warned that the rapid deterioration of the web poses a serious threat to historical preservation: “We’re building our culture on shifting sands.”
Facing Legal and Cyber Threats
The Internet Archive faces copyright lawsuits over its digitization of books and music. Founder Kahle fears these costly legal battles threaten the Archive’s future. The organization also contends with cyberattacks targeting libraries.
Despite these challenges, Kahle cherishes the open display of the servers, the library’s lifeblood: “It’s like open stacks,” he said. “It comes across as a bit vulnerable, right?”
This vulnerability, Kahle believes, sends a crucial message: “We have to support our institutions or they will go away.”