The Internet Archive to safeguard its collection in Canada because of Trump
While many have threatened to move to Canada in the wake of the election, the Internet Archive is actually doing it.
The nonprofit, which runs the Wayback Machine and other online archives, announced Tuesday that it would be soliciting donations in order to create a copy of its collections in Canada.
In a somber update posted on its website, founder Brewster Kahle cited the need for "keeping our cultural materials safe, private and perpetually accessible" and "preparing for a Web that may face greater restrictions" amid mounting government surveillance.
"On November 9th in America, we woke up to a new administration promising radical change," Kahle wrote. Throughout history, libraries have fought against terrible violations of privacy — where people have been rounded up simply for what they read." Donations, he said, would go toward infrastructure costs, including servers and paying the organization's staff, in addition to the move.
Kahle didn't elaborate on specifics about the move, but it sounds like the intention is to build a Canadian-based copy of all its archives, rather than moving its San Francisco headquarters.
Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive powers the Wayback Machine, which preserves billions of web pages, as well as a political TV ad archive and a free online library of ebooks.
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
