
As many of us know by now, thousands of federal government web pages have been taken offline by the trump administration. The New York Times reported on February 2 that “more than 8,000 web pages” had been taken down over a 3 day period. According to the Times these included pages about “vaccines, veterans’ care, hate crimes and scientific research, among many other topics.” This February 3 article in CNET also explains what has happened so far.
Over the years I have written many articles on this website pointing to federal government web pages. Some of those links are already broken, and visitors get a message saying “The requested page could not be found,” or a similar statement.
This article explains my plans for handling those broken links. I also explain why I’m not just taking them off my site or using only an archived link. (I do add the archived link, along with leaving the broken one.) And I list the LFLegal articles I’ve fixed. Please contact me if you run into any links that I haven’t yet fixed.
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My plan when I find a broken link to a federal web page on LFLegal
Here is my plan for federal web pages taken down by the republican administration:
- I will add the following at the end of the short summary that appears at the top of every article:
Please note that some of the links in this article may be broken because the trump administration has pulled many important documents off of federal websites. The update section (found below this summary) will provide alternative links when available.planned text in the summary for articles with broken links
- I will add a note next to the broken link that says “[Note: this page has been taken down by the trump administration. See the Update below to learn what this means and how to read the document on the Internet Archive.]
- I will add an update to the article that includes the link from the WayBack Machine Internet Archive. The WayBack Machine, also known as the Internet Archive, is a valuable tool in these times. (I’d appreciate readers letting me know how accessible this site is.)
After putting a url into the search bar, you will get results telling you how many times the page has been saved over how many years, and a calendar with highlighted clickable dates where you can find the page as it existed on that date. For example, entering my website url I learned it has been saved 610 times between March 2, 2008 when the site was launched and January 21, 2025.
- In the Update I will explain what I understand to be the significance of the republican administration decision to take down the webpage. For example, although a document is taken off a website, its analysis of the law that was on the page might still be sound. In court cases, judges and lawyers may adopt the analysis that was on the now-deleted web page without even referencing it. Advocates can use the reasoning in the document when advocating for change outside of a legal claim. And it’s possible that legally, official steps would need to be taken for the guidance to be officially repudiated.
- If I learn that the deleted webpage has been re-posted on a government website, I will share that link in the article and/or its updates.
Why don’t I just replace the broken link with one from the Internet Archive?
I think it is important for readers to know that valuable information has deliberately been removed from federal government websites because of the right-wing ideological agenda of the trump administration. If I just replaced the link with an archived document readers would miss this context.
I also want to explain that the content or analysis on the removed web pages may still be useful to advocates, lawyers, and the courts even though this administration chose not to share these valuable resources with the public.
Broken federal links already found and fixed
Here are the first two articles I’ve found that had broken links because of republican decisions to take valuable information off the web. These were updated as described in this article. Please let me know what you think of my plan and if the information about broken links, missing web pages, and archived alternatives is useful to you.
- In this article, a linked webpage containing official Guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was removed in the first 2 weeks of the republican administration: Two US Government Agencies Warn about Artificial Intelligence Hiring Technology that Discriminates against Disabled Applicants: Article includes resources for AI fairness in employment and beyond.
You can find the archived version in the February 2, 2025 Update section of the article.
- in this article, a linked webpage containing official Guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was removed in the first 2 weeks of the republican administration: Offering Healthcare? The ADA, Section 504, and the Affordable Care Act Mean Accessible Telehealth, #HealthTech, and Content.
You can find the archived version in the February 4, 2025 Update section of the article.