20,000+ Call on The Atlantic, New York Times, and USA Today to keep the news in the WayBack Machine
Major news outlets cited theoretical AI concerns and ended 30 years of journalism preservation. The public is asking them to be reasonable.
Over 20,000 people are calling on leadership at major news outlets The Atlantic, New York Times, and USA Today to allow the WayBack Machine to continue its multi-decade work of independently preserving news stories.
The petition, which remains open for signatures, reads in part:
“The Wayback Machine makes every online news outlet it archives more resilient against pressure to remove stories that threaten the powerful. It is in the interest of any news outlet that still does real journalism to champion such an ally in times like these. It shouldn’t be this hard to find a way to independently preserve the news.”
These signatures come as new research shows that 38% of webpages from a decade ago are not longer accessible—except for the 15% of those pages that the WayBack Machine has archived. Further, the Internet Archive recently revealed that over 100 news articles per month reference, cite, or rely on WayBack Machine materials.
“The stories and truth of our time shouldn’t be collateral damage in backroom AI deals or AI hand-wringing,” said Lia Holland (they/she) Campaigns and Communications Director at Fight for the Future. “These news publishers are on very shaky ground when it comes to blocking the WayBack Machine. Their stated reason, that they want to ensure AI will not train on their content via the WayBack Machine, is purely theoretical, but the impacts are not. Essentially, New York Times, The Atlantic, and USA Today are sawing off an arm of their integrity by blocking the WayBack Machine: they are impoverishing future journalists by denying them a resource they have benefited from for 30 years, they’re exposing themselves to increased censorship vulnerability, and they’re torching third party accountability for the content of their publications. If I held an interest in one of these publications, I would be highly interested in the motivations behind this decision to undermine integrity and accountability.”
At last count, 275 journalists have signed a separate letter thanking the Internet Archive and its WayBack Machine for being a crucial resource in their profession. Journalists regularly rely on the WayBack Machine to report on everything from censorship to culture. When signing, many journalist-signatories offered quotes:
“In 2022 at Reuters, we used the Internet Archive to uncover a now-defunct covert online communication system that the CIA had used to stay in touch with its informants in Iran. The report, published under the title America’s Throwaway Spies: How the CIA failed Iranian informants in its secret war with Tehran, won the National Press Club’s Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence in 2023.”
— Bozorgmehr Sharafedin
“As Washington Post Fact Checker, the Internet Archive was essential to writing articles that debunked falsehoods. I could show how websites were changed and data was manipulated. When the Trump administration killed USAID and terminated its website, I could only examine their false claims about USAID with reports and data preserved by the Internet Archive.”
— Glenn Kessler
“I’ve worked as an editor, researcher, journalist, and photojournalist, and have use the Internet Archive in many ways. I was online editor at the San Francisco Bay Guardian which was later sold & shut down. Issues of the print newspaper are being digitized & archived on the Internet Archive. Many online versions of stories as well as stories & columns which were only online & promoted in the newspaper are only available through the Wayback Machine.”
— Steve Rhodes
“I use Wayback Machine all the time to fact check statements and pronouncements from institutions. In the most recent memorable example, the Vancouver Police Department changed their press release AFTER I had reported an article on misleading statements in their original statement. The department then posted on Twitter from its official account, accusing me of falsifying information. I was able to use the Wayback Machine to immediately prove that the police department had changed their initial statement to make it look like I had lied in my article. Thanks to the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine and the publication I was writing for (as a freelancer at the time), the record was set straight.”
— Brishti Basu
For the journalist letter, quotations, the letter text, the sign-on form, and signatory list are available at https://www.savethearchive.com/journalists/
For the public petition, all details and the sign on form are available at https://www.savethearchive.com/newsleaders/
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