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| what has happened since our January 2025 Seattle Data Rescues? |
Updates
a lot. A LOT has happened.
After our public education, peer collecting and collective description Data Rescue efforts, numerous changes have occurred. Many bad, some good.
FIRST THE GOOD
Internet Archive seems to have received a backup copy of the CDC End of Term project is processing the anticipated 300 TB of select Biden public admin files, and the Public Environmental Data Project collected ~52 massive datasets slowly coming online.
But given the scale, complexity, lack of labor and resource, and frequent sabotaging of US federal government agencies to identify, duplicate, store, and provide access to all federal data, it has tended to be very difficult to not only preserve ALL relevant public data, but also communicate where backup copies can be found. Sadly more visibility also means increased vulnerability towards people/orgs host vulnerable and targeted data (for example the Internet Archive had a cyberattack this past fall) Sharing in a vulnerable space like the internet might take a backseat for at least a few months.
With current government targeting of certain data, researchers might have the best luck finding accessible copies via university data repositories like the UW Dryad collection. Research data repositories are great alternative especially if you know which researchers you might work with or lean on but they really depend on individuals to deposit their own copies of research data.
- Registry of Research Data Repositories https://www.re3data.org
THE BAD...
In a surprise to no one, thousands of federal files, websites, and datasets were either removed, scrubbed, revised, or simply put offline. Crucial areas of research, teaching, and community knowing include Public Health issues for marginalized populations and areas in particular are experiencing ruthless obstruction of online information sharing.
This year's extensive purging of government data is also a reaction by federal agencies to the disastrous January 2025 EO to freeze government research funding until agencies can confirm that their work aligns with the new government's ideologies. For UW updates see Office of the Provost website
As many scramble to gain or give access to tampered websites and datasets, the following news articles will be updated as changes occur.
Health
Doctors sue over removed health data
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/04/doctors-sue-trump-removed-health-data
US government removes health websites and data, here’s a list of non-government data alternatives
https://journalistsresource.org/home/as-the-us-government-removes-health-websites-and-data-heres-a-list-of-non-government-data-alternatives/
What we saved from the federal government’s data purge
https://19thnews.org/2025/02/federal-government-data-purge-information-saved/
Environment
As Data Goes Off-Line, Environmental Researchers Are Uploading Backups https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/research/2025/01/29/data-goes-line-under-trump-researchers-upload-backups
Labor & Demographics
Thousands of U.S. Government Web Pages Have Been Taken Down Since Friday https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/upshot/trump-government-websites-missing-pages.html
OMB Head Installs Illegal Server to Seize All Federal Workers’ Data https://newrepublic.com/post/191075/elon-musk-power-grab-server-federal-worker-data\
Education\