Link Rot, Digital Decay & The Internet Archive: Turns Out Digital Content Actually *Doesn't* Last Forever

Thank you to BRITA for supporting the podcast, helping us keep our deep dives going, and, of course, keeping us hydrated! Check out BRITA here: https://www.brita.com.au/turnonthetaste In this episode, I explore the evolution of digital decay and the preservation efforts by non-profit organisation The Internet Archive, owner of the Wayback Machine. I look at instances of mass content erasure online— such as Myspace, Vine, and Gawker— before answering the question: Why is it so important that we preserve internet history? Timestamps: 00:40 Intro 3:44 What is the Internet Archive and why was it created? 8:40 Challenges and threats to the Internet Archive 12:58 Lost social media: Myspace & Vine 16:04 The importance of longevity and information protection 17:31 The Internet Archive as a “check” on media 23:03 Archiving content & misinformation Find our podcast YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC18HclY7Tt5-1e3Z-MEP7Jg  Subscribe to our weekly Substack: https://centennialworld.substack.com/  Join our Geneva home: https://links.geneva.com/invite/7eb23525-9259-4d59-95e3-b9edd35861a5  Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infinitescrollpodcast/  Follow Lauren on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenmeisner_/  Sources: https://archive.org/about/  https://archive-it.org/products-and-services/archive-it-faqs/  https://dn720406.ca.archive.org/0/items/wayback-machine-1996/The%20Wayback%20Machine%27s%20First%20Crawl%201996%20-_720p.mp4  https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2016/01/18/the-internet-archive-turns-20-a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-archiving-the-web/  https://www.pewresearch.org/data-labs/2024/05/17/when-online-content-disappears/  https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240912-the-archivists-battling-to-save-the-internet  https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/10/18/internet-archive-hack-wayback/  https://www.npr.org/2024/10/20/nx-s1-5159000/internet-archive-hack-leak-wayback-machine  https://blog.archive.org/2024/10/21/internet-archive-services-update-2024-10-21/  https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/18/myspace-loses-all-content-uploaded-before-2016  https://mashable.com/article/vine-archive-website  https://www.instagram.com/p/DEhf2uTJUs0/  https://theconversation.com/the-internet-archive-has-been-fighting-for-25-years-to-keep-whats-on-the-web-from-disappearing-and-you-can-help-163867  https://news.gallup.com/poll/651977/americans-trust-media-remains-trend-low.aspx  https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2024-06/apo-nid326816_4.pdf  https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/12/17/21024439/monoculture-algorithm-netflix-spotify  https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45730363  https://blog.archive.org/2018/10/01/more-than-9-million-broken-links-on-wikipedia-are-now-rescued/  https://www.wired.com/story/internet-archive-wikipedia-more-reliable/  https://blog.archive.org/2024/09/11/new-feature-alert-access-archived-webpages-directly-through-google-search/