Articles & Videos

We’ve all heard the warning that “the internet is forever.” In reality, huge swaths of the digital world are disappearing all the time, as websites go dark, governments purge public records, social media posts vanish, and streaming platforms remove films and music. Without deliberate efforts to preserve this material, much of our recent history could simply cease to exist. The Internet Archive has spent decades fighting that disappearance, most notably through its Wayback Machine, which preserves snapshots of a web that is otherwise constantly being rewritten. Current Affairs spoke with Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine, and librarian Chris Freeland, co-editor of the Internet Archive’s new Vanishing Culture report, about why the internet is far more fragile than we think and what is lost when corporations and governments can make information disappear.

Introduction In March 2022, cinema-goers across India watched in tense silence as a young Hindu woman sobbed hysterically on screen, recounting graphic atrocities committed by her Muslim neighbours. Outside the theaters, emotions erupted into nationalist chants. Later, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly praised the film as a courageous act of “truth-telling.” Several Indian states, ruled by [...]

Mehdi speaks to Ruben Gallego about his plans to tax the rich and restrict aid to Israel, the Trump DOJ’s investigation into his campaign finances, and going from ‘progressive’ to ‘border hawk.’