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This means Trump can finally de-fund them
No, it doesn't. It's still an independent entity. The right is already slinging around enough misinformation, we don't need to add any of our own.
I'm inclined to consider it a honeypot tbh. Its too damn sus that the US government suddenly likes something like this.
You... know the US government isn't a person, right?
Typically, no. This term, however...
From what I hear as an outsider it‘s a bunch of fucking losers for the most part. Feel free to correct me if I‘m wrong, though.
Sure, but "bunch" is the operative word here. People in government don't agree with each other, kinda by design.
In this particular case this is a thing any one member of Congress can do unilaterally and a democrat senator from California just decided to do it. That particular fucking loser probably doesn't agree with a bunch of the other fucking losers on a bunch of stuff, including this one.
You hit the nail on the head.
I can't see anything good coming from this
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.
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.
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.
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.
Does this mean now they can be ordered to take down content?
No. They remain independent.
Edit: well, ok, they can, but only in the way that they previously could: through a court order that would affect any library of any kind.
Seems like a terrible idea given what our federal government has become.
The Federal government gets no control over the Internet Archive through this designation.
Uh huh. Sure thing.
I'm not saying Trump wouldn't try to take such a thing, but this doesn't give him any more ability to do so than he had before. Obviously he's willing to be a fascist, so he doesn't need any change in an organization's designation to do something undemocratic toward them. He has exactly as much control as he had before. This doesn't change anything.
DEI and trans people removed, with the latter soon redirecting to a christian psychologist's website about "cluster B abuse" in 3...
The Federal government has no direct or indirect control over the libraries in the FDLP.
Guys fast! Save everything that annoys Trump, fast!
Trump has exactly as much control over it now as he did before: none. 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 can of course do some undemocratic shenanigans to them, but no more or less than he could before this designation.
Yes, but undemocratic shenanigans arent rare
Again, it doesn't matter for this news. The ease of undemocratic shenanigans toward the Internet Archive has not changed.
Ah ok
I strongly recommend that a whole bunch of people actually look up what the FDLP is before commenting. Trump doesn't "have control" over the Internet Archive.
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2025
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