Digital memory at stake: News outlets block Wayback Machine

Deutsche Welle · Apr 22, 2026 · 1022 words · By Martin Muno

Public Infrastructure AI Impact on Journalism Digital Preservation vs. Corporate Copyright

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.dw.com/en/digital-memory-at-stake-why-news-outlets-block-the-wayback…

psychologyDetected Techniques

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Loaded Language 80% confidence

Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

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Exaggeration / Hyperbole 70% confidence

Overstating facts or claims to create a stronger emotional response.

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Appeal to Hypocrisy 90% confidence

Dismissing someone's argument because their behavior contradicts it.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

13 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

verified Verified By Reference 3

schedule Pending 3

verified Verified 2

info Single Source 2

check_circle Corroborated 2

help Insufficient Evidence 1

verified

“For 30 years, the archive.org internet platform has been archiving digital content.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia confirms the Internet Archive was founded in 1996. As of 2024/2025, this is approximately 30 years (rounding slightly or counting from inception to current date).

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 200…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — arXiv (pronounced as "archive"—the X represents the Greek letter chi ⟨χ⟩) is an open-access repository of electronic preprints and postprints (known as e-prints) approved for posting after moderation,…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArXiv

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Internet Archive is an American non-profit library founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media inc…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

“The "Wayback Machine" contains more than 1 billion archived web pages”

VERIFIED

Web search results from the Wayback Machine's own site and related descriptions confirm the archive preserves 'billions of websites', which encompasses the 'more than 1 billion' claim.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and retired professional basketball player who is a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets o…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jordan

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Wayback Machine or WABAC Machine is a fictional time machine and plot device from the 1960s American cartoon television series The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends. Each episode of t…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine_(Peabody's_Imp…

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

“this unique project instigated by a San-Francisco-based non-profit”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Multiple Wikipedia entries and web search results explicitly state the Internet Archive is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Internet Archive building, housed in the former Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist, is a historic building located at 300 Funston Avenue, corner of Clement Street, in the Richmond District of San …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive_building

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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“According to research conducted by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, at least 241 news outlets from nine countries are blocking the archive's web crawlers.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

While the Nieman Foundation is confirmed to exist at Harvard, the specific research claim regarding 241 news outlets blocking crawlers is not present in the provided evidence snippets.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Breitbart News Network ( BRYTE-bart; known commonly as Breitbart News, Breitbart, or Breitbart.com) is an American far-right news, opinion, and commentary website founded in 2007 by American conservat…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breitbart_News

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Longform was an American media company founded in Brooklyn, New York City, in April 2010 by journalists Max Linsky and Aaron Lammer. It operated a longform article recommendation service until January…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longform.org

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Source credibility is "a term commonly used to imply a communicator's positive characteristics that affect the receiver's acceptance of a message." Academic studies of this topic began in the 20th cen…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_credibility

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

“They include the UK's Guardian, the New York Times, France's Le Monde and largest US newspaper conglomerate, USA Today Co.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence for this specific claim consists of general homepages for the mentioned outlets. However, a web search result for 'Why Major News Sites Are Blocking...' mentions the NYT is 'hard blocking', but the full list of the four specific entities blocking is not corroborated across multiple independent sources in the provided text.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Guardian Angels is an American nonprofit volunteer organization with the goal of unarmed crime prevention. The organization was founded by Curtis Sliwa in New York City on February 14, 1979. Sliwa…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_Angels

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The mayor of New York City, officially mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office ad…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_New_York_City

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Guardian is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, The …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

“USA Today itself recently published a sensational report on efforts by the US immigration authority ICE to systematically hold back information on its detention policy. USA Today's research was based on archive.org's Wayback Machine.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence provided contains general information about ICE and the Wayback Machine, but does not mention a specific USA Today report on ICE detention policy using the Wayback Machine.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Its stated mission is to conduct criminal investigations, enforce immigration laws, preserve national security, and protect public safety. ICE was created as part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Immigration_and_…

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web search NEUTRAL — This introduction to using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine (archive.org/web) includes information about searching by URL or keyword, understanding the...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts1tu1BiSuY

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web search NEUTRAL — An official website of the United States government.Find an immigration detention facility. You can use the ICE detainee locator to find a person currently held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforce…
https://www.usa.gov/detained-by-ice

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“A spokesperson for the New York Times, Graham James, put it bluntly: "The issue is that Times content on the Internet Archive is being used by AI companies in violation of copyright law to directly compete with us."”

CORROBORATED

The quote from Graham James is independently reported by EuroNews, Wired, and The Next Web.

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web search NEUTRAL — The New York Times has gone further, actively “hard blocking” the Internet Archive’s crawlers — measures that go beyond the web's standard robots.txt conventions. At the end of 2025, the Times also ad…
https://www.forbes.com/sites/anishasircar/2026/04/14/why-maj…

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web search NEUTRAL — New York Times spokesperson Graham James says that “the issue is that Times content on the Internet Archive is being used by AI companies in violation of copyright law to directly compete with us.”
https://www.wired.com/story/the-internets-most-powerful-arch…

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web search NEUTRAL — Wired added that the Times declined to clarify whether this was actually happening. USA Today Co. spokesperson Lark-Marie Anton similarly stated that the company is not specifically blocking the Inter…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/30-year-old-intern…

+ 1 more evidence source

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“Speaking to Wired magazine, Mark Graham, Director of the Wayback Machine, confirmed that several companies had intermittently accessed the archives with tens of thousands of requests per second”

CORROBORATED

Two separate web search results from the same reporting thread (referencing Wired) confirm Mark Graham's statement about companies making tens of thousands of requests per second.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Speaking to Wired magazine, Mark Graham, Director of the Wayback Machine, confirmed that several companies had intermittently accessed the archives with tens of thousands of requests per second ...
https://www.dw.com/en/digital-memory-at-stake-why-news-outle…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 200…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Speaking to Wired magazine, Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine, confirmed that several companies had intermittently accessed the archives with tens of thousands of requests per second — unti…
https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2026/4/23/digital-me…

help

“more than 100 journalists have signed a petition in support of the internet archive.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results regarding a petition signed by 100 journalists.

verified

“During a cyberattack in September 2024, data was stolen from 31 million user accounts”

VERIFIED

A web search result explicitly mentions that Archive.org was compromised in a hack that revealed data on roughly 31 million users, aligning with the September 2024 timeframe mentioned in the claim.

schedule

“That same year, the archive lost the copyright dispute "Hachette v. Internet Archive" in a US appeals court”

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“Publishing houses Hachette, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and Wiley had successfully sued over the free e-book lending program the archive had launched during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

PENDING

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“More than 500,000 books had to be removed from the program”

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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.

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Digital memory at stake: News outlets block Wayback Machine

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