Update. "Marks Says He Was Forced Out of #FDA for Trying to Protect #Vaccine Safety #Data"
https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/fdageneral/114998

"Shortly before he was forced to resign, the nation's top vaccine regulator says he refused to grant #HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s team unrestricted access to a tightly held vaccine safety database, fearing that the information might be manipulated or even deleted."

Update. "#SciOp is part of Safeguarding Research & Culture (#SRC). The bits must flow: let us resurrect the ancient art of #Bittorrent to ensure that our cultural, intellectual and scientific heritage exists in multiple copies, in multiple places, and that no single entity or group of entities can make it all disappear."
https://sciop.net/

Update. "The White House Frames the Past by Erasing Parts of It"
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/technology/trump-history-websites.html

"Thousands of…govt web pages [have] been taken down or modified, including content about vaccines, hate crimes, low-income children, opioid addiction and veterans, before a court order temporarily blocked part of the sweeping erasure. A Justice Department database tracking criminal charges and convictions linked to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was removed. Segments of data sets are gone, some of the experts who produced them were dismissed, and many mentions of words like “Black,” “women” and “discrimination” have evaporated…“This is not a cost-cutting mechanism,” said Kenny Evans, who studies science and technology policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and runs the White House Scientists Archive at the school. 'This slide toward secrecy and lack of transparency is an erosion of democratic norms.'"

authorities are prioritising #profit over #preservation.

Update. "As the Trump administration purges web pages, this group is rushing to save them"
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/23/nx-s1-5326573/internet-archive-wayback-machine-trump

"After President Trump's inauguration in January, some federal web pages vanished. While…were removed entirely, many came back online with changes that…officials said were made to conform to Trump's executive orders to remove "diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility policies." Thousands of datasets were wiped — mostly at agencies focused on science and the environment…Information about climate change, reproductive health, gender identity and sexual orientation also have been on the chopping block…The #InternetArchive [@internetarchive] is among the few efforts that exist to catch the stuff that falls through the digital cracks, while also making that information accessible to the public. Six weeks into the new administration, #WaybackMachine director Graham said, the Internet Archive had cataloged some 73,000 web pages that had existed on U.S. government websites that were expunged after Trump's inauguration."

Update. "A group of US researchers funded through federal grants who wish to document the damage to our scientific #infrastructure. Our #data #archive is for use by journalists, academics, and the general public."
https://theresearchwelost.com/

Update. "US anti-terror legislation must not be weaponised against libraries"
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/us-anti-terror-legislation-must-not-be-weaponised-against-libraries

"Scholars have attempted to safeguard their work by turning to sites deemed to be beyond the reach of the US government…However, even these safe havens may be at risk if a seemingly innocuous tax bill completes its course through Congress. H.R. 9495, the “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act”, was passed by the US House of Representatives in November 2024 and is currently before the Senate. It proposes…to strip non-profit status from organisations deemed to be “supporting terrorism”. But its broad language, lack of evidentiary requirements, and potential for political weaponisation should send a chill down the spines of all higher education professionals. After all, who is to define terrorism? History is filled with examples of liberation movements and resistance groups initially labelled 'terrorists' by powerful states. And who is to define 'support'?"

Update. From @kfitz: "Digital Preservation in a Time of Disorder"
https://about.hcommons.org/2025/03/19/digital-preservation-in-a-time-of-disorder/

"#KnowledgeCommons has applied for a significant grant from Lever for Change to build, implement, and sustain a digital preservation network that will be free from the US government’s, and any other single government’s, interference…KC is a #nonprofit, community-governed, #OpenAccess platform for creating and sharing knowledge world-wide…But, in the present moment, our US-centeredness is a significant threat to that mission. We propose to establish three linked but independent nonprofit public-benefit companies incorporated in the US, Europe, and South Africa, all dedicated to the social and technological processes of gathering, preserving, and ensuring the public accessibility of academic research."