End of Term blog

Sharing news and commentary on the urgent effort to save public research websites before Trump cuts access

The Week of March 10, 2025

Washington Post. Photos are disappearing, one archive at a time

As photographers try to find homes for their work, traditional archives (hard copy photos, negatives, and slides) are also vanishing, especially in local journalism, where generations of photographers built shared visual records of community history. - gjw

Clean Technica. US Cultural Revolution: Bonfire of NASA, NOAA, EPA, CDC, & USDA Climate Programs

NASA, NOAA, NIH, National Science Foundation data and budgets slashed as if Mao's Cultural Revolution lives on. - acb

Columbia Journalism Review. Fighting the Great Federal Website Purge

By preserving such information, newsrooms are not only aiding themselves and other journalists, but are showing data archivists where to dig and supporting countless scientists whose work the current purge has devalued. - acb

AP. Judge tells agencies to restore webpages and data removed after Trump’s executive order

Removing important information from the CDC and FDA websites is delaying patient care, hampering research and hindering doctors’ ability to communicate with patients, the plaintiffs’ attorneys argued in a court filing. - acb

CivilRights.org. Why We Must Stop Trump’s Attempts to Erase Our Communities

These rollbacks do not merely threaten the integrity of scientific research — they undermine the fundamental goals of our federal statistical system to produce and share timely, relevant data while ensuring accuracy, credibility, objectivity, and confidentiality. Eliminating critical data allows for agencies to absolve themselves of accountability, obscures population-policy impacts, and worsens inequities. Without trusted data to make decisions, mistrust and disinformation can proliferate. - acb

GWU National Security Archive. Disappearing Data: Trump Administration Removing Climate Information from Government Websites

Community-led advocacy groups, archivists, and universities scramble to download climate resources and datasets. EPA, NOAA, and CEQ all targets of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. End of Term Web (EOT) Archive and Internet Archive's (IA) Wayback Machine crucial in preserving web data.download climate resources and datasets. EPA, NOAA, and CEQ all targets of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. End of Term Web (EOT) Archive and Internet Archive's (IA) Wayback Machine crucial in preserving web data. - acb

The Week of February 23, 2025

Fierce Pharma. CDC’s ‘Wild to Mild’ flu vaccine campaign muzzled amid HHS handover

According to snapshots collected by the Internet Archive, at some point between Feb. 14 and Feb. 18, the Wild to Mild webpage was wiped of its information and resources. - gw

The Verge. The mad dash to protect environmental data from Donald Trump
“Trump’s second term in office could pose a bigger risk to information about climate change and pollution on federal websites, advocates warn” - gw

Freedom of the Press Foundation. Here’s how you can help save government data and research

President Donald Trump’s administration has been quick to purge information about “vaccines, veterans’ care, hate crimes and scientific research, among many other topics” from thousands of federal government websites. - gw