this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2025
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I can't see anything good coming from this
This doesn't change anything about the ownership, governance, or control of the Internet Archive. It literally just means that all official government documents go to them for archiving. This is cool and neat and raises the profile of the Internet Archive, but other than that it doesn't really mean anything. Trump has exactly as much control over it now as he did before: none.
Well, good. I hope it stays that way and I'll be cautiously optimistic it's actually a good thing. Thank you for the information.
How so? As far as I can tell all this means is they're added to a list of official places storing public documents. Beyond the slight bragging rights, slightly increased sense of legitimacy in upcoming lawsuits and... I guess the server costs? this seems pretty neutral. I don't even think you need the official designation to actually store the documents in question.
Lookup who the current dictator is of the US and you’ll have your answer.
So nothing good can come from this.
Why?
Donald Trump.
How does that follow? Again I ask, you are aware that the US government has more than one person in it, right?
Ah yes. Lets not forget about the other one, felon musk
The Internet archive is important and Trump now has control over it.
There. I simplified it for you.
He... does not at all. This is barely a ceremonial denomination meaning that they are a designated mirror of official US documentation. This has even less of an impact than their basic clasification as a library, it's unilaterally decided by just the one senator and is mostly PR. They could have stored the same documents without the designation, even.
This is all a search or wikipedia visit away. People really operate on the basis of seeing a headline, not even bothering to click through and just... making up what it means in their heads. We really need to get better at this, it's been decades of Internet and centuries of newspapers.
Look again. Trump has no control over it. The Federal Depository designation basically just means that all official documents go to it for archiving. All Federal Depository libraries remain independent and receive no funding from the Government as a part of their membership in the program.
They can redefine why that membership means at any time.
Yes, but that has always been the case. If they're going to do some undemocratic shenanigans, this designation doesn't make it any easier or harder.
It’s possible I’m wrong about this. I’m just worried. I can’t see anything good coming from tying into the US government in any way right now.
You're not wrong, but this isn't "tying into" the US Gov any more than your mailbox "ties into" the postal service by being approved by the postmaster general. Your mail carrier could throw a rock at it, but they could have done that before anyway.