warning regarding uspol and data archiving
Hey, so uh, please keep in mind that the Internet Archive is located in the US. While they are an independent organization in principle, that sure isn't going to stop a fascist like Trump or Musk, who definitely has physical access to their facilities and the impunity to go with it.
All of which is to say: make sure to also back up the data you're archiving in a place that is *not* in the US or its direct sphere of influence! There is only so much the Internet Archive can do to insulate themselves from fascist actions.
warning regarding uspol and data archiving (2)
@joepie91 I think you were the one who told me about Tahoe-LAFS, I need to look into that again because it really did look promising when I played around with it.
warning regarding uspol and data archiving (2)
@KuJoe That could certainly be a useful option here!
Garage may also be worth looking into, though it has much weaker protections against malicious nodes - it's more useful if you control all of the storage systems involved and just want to distribute the data among them.
warning regarding uspol and data archiving (2)
@joepie91 Thanks! I'll look into both. I've been looking into solutions where groups of individuals can pool their resources for a project like this and it seems like it's needed now more than ever.
@joepie91 Yes. Lots of copies, widely dispersed.
The Internet Archive is a great resource, but I agree that it's not one that should be relied upon as the sole "safe haven" for data. Because no place ever is.
If there's something you care about to preserve, even if the Internet Archive has a copy, then very strongly consider making a local copy yourself.
re: warning regarding uspol and data archiving (2)
@joepie91 i assume you're probably aware of this but fwiw archive team (the group currently mass-archiving usgov datasets) is a chaotic collective, the internet archive is just responsible for long-term data storage
warning regarding uspol and data archiving
@joepie91
A while back the IA had a Canadian Backup initiative going, but I can't find any really recent information on it.
I hope it's still going and in sync.
warning regarding uspol and data archiving
@silvermoon82 To my knowledge there are two backups outside of the US (one of them is in NL, actually) but both are only partial backups, and while they are *physically* elsewhere that's not likely to protect from much if it's the organization itself that gets targeted by fascists
warning regarding uspol and data archiving
@joepie91
Yeah, what we need is complete and legally distinct offsite backups.
I like the idea of individual collectives holding copies, in theory it should be harder to take down a bunch of anarchist clubs than a few national-level organisations.
warning regarding uspol and data archiving
@lampsofgold I didn't take that statement to mean Musk (or even Trump) *personally*, but given the current political situation in the US federal legislature it certainly seems like it would be easy enough for concern to ram through a law and then hit the Internet Archive with it *if* Trump wants to do that.
re: warning regarding uspol and data archiving
@joepie91 you can always send the Internet Archive's torrents too
re: warning regarding uspol and data archiving
@leo That does help, but then you need to also back up the torrent files themselves, because if the item gets hidden from IA, so do the hosted torrent files
re: warning regarding uspol and data archiving
@joepie91 yeah but that's much easier to distribute widely (you could even just share the magnet links and rely on the DHT, though that's of course not optimal)
re: warning regarding uspol and data archiving
@joepie91 (and if you're actively seeding the torrent you presumably have the torrent itself too)
warning regarding uspol and data archiving (2)
Also, more generally, consider that institutional organizations are *much* more vulnerable to hostile action than chaotic local collectives which do not have clear operators or representatives.
It pays to store a copy in some obscure organization that's difficult to figure out as an outsider, even if they don't have professional infrastructure to support it. Deliberate censorship is the bigger risk right now, not accidental data loss.