The Great Digital Purge: How the Government Is Erasing Science, History, and More
They say the internet never forgets. But what happens when the government decides to make it forget for good?
It started with an email.
Last week, reports emerged that employees at USAID were instructed to destroy classified and personnel records per Erica Carr, the acting executive secretary of USAID. The directive raised immediate legal and ethical concerns. According to leaked communications, staff were told to engage in an “all-day” effort to clear out classified safes and use burn bags when shredders became unavailable.
The justification? The Trump administration is systematically dismantling the agency, and offices need to be cleared. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has spearheaded an aggressive restructuring effort, leading to the termination of 83% of USAID programs and mass layoffs.
However, the real concern isn’t just the destruction of USAID documents.
Because this isn’t an isolated event. And it isn’t new. But it is escalating.
The Systematic Disappearance of Government Information
While staff shreds paper files, government websites and digital archives are being wiped clean across multiple federal agencies.
Since January 2025, watchdog groups have documented:
Over 8,000 web pages removed from federal websites.
Approximately 3,000 datasets erased, including scientific research, public health records, and legal resources.
The deletion of entire government portals on climate change, diversity & inclusion, LGBTQ+ rights, and COVID-19.
The quiet dismantling of CDC health pages, including those addressing reproductive rights and gender identity.
What we are witnessing isn’t just a bureaucratic reshuffling.
It’s a purge, a digital and physical burning of a modern Library of Alexandria.
See our reporting on libraries here:
The Illusion of Permanence: Why “The Internet Never Forgets” Is a Lie
We often joke that nothing on the internet ever really disappears. But recent events prove otherwise. Government data, legal records, and scientific research—once seen as permanent digital fixtures—are being erased from existence with the click of a button.
Even the Wayback Machine, the internet’s most extensive archive, has its limits:
It only captures web pages at intervals, meaning a page may be lost forever if it is created and deleted before its next snapshot.
Before 2017, many government agencies used “robots.txt” files to block archiving, making large portions of federal websites unrecoverable.
While the Wayback Machine stopped honoring robots.txt for government sites in April 2017, there is still no federal mandate requiring agencies to preserve their websites.
This Policy Change Came Just in Time
The Wayback Machine’s decision in 2017 wasn’t directly aimed at Trump’s first-term website purges but was a crucial safeguard. By ignoring robots.txt, it archived deleted climate data, LGBTQ+ resources, and scientific reports that might have otherwise vanished without a trace.
However, we can’t rely on it as our sole safety net because it doesn't capture everything. The current mass purging of records could still leave gaps in our historical and scientific archives.
Most alarmingly, college and university libraries and archivists report that articles in WebMed and other valued resources are disappearing and not being caught by the Wayback Machine. This, paired with Trump administration orders that researchers must avoid a long list of words (often with multiple connotations, applications, and meanings) and cannot publish with specific international organizations, means that vital and frequently unrelated research is not being published or even done for fear of retaliation.
See our reporting here about the erasure of files and photos from the Pentagon and other websites:
This Has Happened Before But Not Like This
Government website changes aren’t new. Every administration updates web pages and removes outdated policies. But past changes were mostly routine updates or political rebranding, NOT ideological erasure.
Obama’s administration removed discredited medical claims (like abstinence-only education programs) and replaced Bush-era climate skepticism with peer-reviewed science.
Trump’s first term (2017-2021) saw the deletion of climate science pages, LGBTQ+ rights resources, and public health data, prompting archivists and scientists to rush to save them.
Biden’s administration restored much of what was lost, especially regarding climate change, pandemic response, and reproductive rights.
But what’s happening now is different.
This isn’t just selective editing. It’s a coordinated effort to erase knowledge, spanning health, science, law, and public records at a scale we haven’t seen before.
Concrete Examples of Data Loss
To illustrate the gravity of this digital purge, consider these cases:
1. Removal of Women's Health & Cancer Research Data
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) removed several breast and cervical cancer fact sheets, particularly those discussing genetic risk factors and reproductive health links.
The CDC's reproductive health division deleted web pages containing guidance on pregnancy-related mortality rates and long-term birth control safety data.
2. Erasure of LGBTQ+ Health Content
Articles on HIV prevention and transgender healthcare were removed from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and CDC websites.
The LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention page was deleted, raising alarms among mental health professionals.
3. Deletion of Environmental & Climate Data
The EPA erased its "Climate Change Indicators" page, which tracked rising temperatures, extreme weather patterns, and greenhouse gas emissions.
The USDA removed soil and water conservation data, including studies on how climate shifts affect American farmland.
4. Disruption of Public Health & Disease Tracking
The CDC archived (instead of keeping live) multiple pages on long COVID research, limiting public access to new findings.
Flu tracking data from past seasons was quietly removed, making it harder for researchers to compare historical outbreaks.
5. Removal of Vaccine Safety Information
The CDC deleted key pages detailing vaccine safety protocols and adverse event reporting, including resources for reporting side effects and understanding vaccine ingredients.
This move has raised concerns among public health experts, who warn that limiting access to safety information could fuel misinformation rather than prevent it.
See our coverage of the erasure of history here:
Expert Perspectives on the Impact
Experts from various fields have voiced serious concerns about these data removals.
Amy O'Hara, a researcher at Georgetown University, described the situation as a "mad scramble" as researchers rushed to retrieve deleted information. Meanwhile, Susan Pollan from the American Public Health Association warned that losing data on health disparities could "undermine the effectiveness of medical treatments and research," particularly affecting vulnerable populations.
Jack Cushman, director of the Harvard Law Library's Innovation Lab, stated that preserving government data is "crucial for understanding and planning various aspects of our world." Other experts agree. “The removal of scientific data undermines the foundation of informed decision-making and public trust in science. It sets a dangerous precedent for the politicization of scientific information,” says Dr. Michael Mann, Climate Scientist & Science Advocate.
Weak Laws Enable This Purge: Why Safeguards Aren’t Enough
There are laws meant to prevent the destruction of government records. Still, they haven’t kept up with the digital age, leaving dangerous loopholes that allow agencies to purge information without consequences.
Federal Records Act (FRA) (1950, Amended 2014)
Requires federal agencies to preserve official records, including emails, documents, and some digital files.
However, websites are often classified as "non-records", meaning agencies can legally delete them.
Presidential Records Act (PRA) (1978)
Requires presidents to preserve all official communications for the National Archives.
However, it doesn’t clearly define how digital content (like websites and databases) should be handled, allowing information to be erased before it is archived.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (1966, Amended)
Gives the public the right to request government records but only if they still exist.
If an agency deletes records before a FOIA request is made, they may be gone forever.
The administration has also fought FOIA requests, particularly regarding DOGE.
E-Government Act (2002)
Requires agencies to maintain digital public records for transparency.
However, it lacks enforcement power, so agencies can still remove content without facing penalties.
Federal Records Accountability Act (2014)
Strengthened penalties for deleting official government records.
But it doesn’t explicitly include websites, online reports, or scientific datasets.
Bottom Line: The Law Hasn’t Caught Up
These outdated laws were never designed for the digital age. Agencies can still delete entire government websites, remove thousands of research datasets, and wipe historical archives, all without technically breaking the law.
If digital preservation laws aren’t modernized, we could face a future in which entire chapters of history are erased with a keystroke, and there’s no legal way to recover them.
A Modern-Day Library of Alexandria
The systematic erasure of digital records mirrors the tragic loss of the Library of Alexandria, where invaluable knowledge vanished in flames.
Today, instead of fire, knowledge is being deleted with keystrokes.
The result is the same: an irreversible loss of information that could set back science, medicine, history, and public accountability for generations.
Grassroots Movements: Rescuing Data from Oblivion
In response, activists and archivists are working to save what they can:
DataRescueProject.org – Archiving and preserving vulnerable government data.
The End of Term Web Archive – Capturing government websites before they disappear.
Harvard Law Library's Preservation Initiative – Scraping and saving legal & policy documents at risk of deletion.
This isn’t the first time archivists, scientists, and even park rangers have led the charge against government attempts to erase knowledge. Just as they fought to preserve climate data and protect public lands during Trump’s first term, today’s digital defenders are racing against time to rescue public information before it’s gone forever.
The Bottom Line: We Need Digital Record Laws That Keep Up With Reality
This isn’t about routine government website updates. This is a coordinated purge, one that weakens transparency, science, and historical record-keeping.
If history has taught us anything, it’s that those who erase the past aim to control the future. But history also teaches us something else; knowledge can only be erased if we let it.
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Bibliography:
Ward, Alexander. "USAID Official Tells Remaining Staffers: 'Shred and Burn All Your Documents'’" Politico, March 11, 2025. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/11/usaid-official-tells-remaining-staffers-shred-and-burn-all-your-documents-00224404
Pecquet, Julian. "Court Asked to Intervene After Email Tells USAID Workers to Destroy Classified Documents." AP News, March 12, 2025. https://apnews.com/article/f042a51c0a9f74c96b0259b51a0d4a83
Shalal, Andrea. "Harvard Doctors Sue Over Trump Removal of Articles Mentioning LGBTQ+ Health Issues." Reuters, March 12, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/harvard-doctors-sue-over-trump-removal-articles-mentioning-lgbtq-health-issues-2025-03-12
Bertrand, Natasha. "War heroes and military firsts are among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon’s DEI purge." Politico, March 7, 2025. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/07/pentagon-diversity-photo-purge-00217223
Lewis, Tanya. "CDC webpages go dark as Trump targets public health information." The Guardian, February 4, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/04/dcd-pages-trump-public-health
Mann, Michael. "Trump’s Agenda Is Undermining American Science." The New Yorker, March 17, 2025. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/17/trumps-agenda-is-undermining-american-science
O’Hara, Amy. "Trump administration’s data deletions set off ‘a mad scramble,’ researcher says" AP News, March 9, 2025. https://apnews.com/article/6a9ba7c01a42b72e2c0a119325ba3753
Cushman, Jack. "Harvard Law Library Races to Preserve Government Data Amid Sweeping Purges." Reuters, February 6, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/harvard-law-library-acts-preserve-government-data-amid-sweeping-purges-2025-02-06
Pollan, Susan. "Public Health Expert on Federal Data Removals: ‘Health Care Is Going to Suffer’" Verywell Health, March 10, 2025. https://www.verywellhealth.com/federal-health-data-q-and-a-8787444
Wikipedia Editors. "2025 United States Government Online Resource Removals." Wikipedia, last modified March 12, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_United_States_government_online_resource_removals
Not only do we need updated digital records laws, but we are also in desperate need of updated Federal privacy laws for citizens. The most recent one passed was in 1988 preventing employees at video rentals from disclosing anybody's rental history. It may seem unrelated, but I feel like the preservation of public information related to the Government and the protection of private information related to citizens are two sides of the same coin.
Great piece. I have been upset about this since they began scrubbing websites during the first week. This has no benefit for citizens and is purely nefarious. One would only do this for evil purposes. They have scrubbed veterans of color and female veterans from some honors now, as well. Thank you for an important article. 📢