Why All Creator Activists Should Start Using the Wayback Machine
Documenting history in a collective, independent space
Apple recently removed from its App Store “ICEblock”, a platform built to serve as a repository for videos and other materials documenting ICE activity. As we’ve seen in the last few days/weeks/months, documenting ICE’s brutality has been essential for raising public awareness. These photos and videos have also served as evidence is the court of law, including in a recent class action lawsuit (Chicago Headline Club v. Noem) challenging the excessive force used by ICE against peaceful protestors at the Broadview facility in Chicago.
The removal of these apps will likely be challenged as unconstitutional: the apps are publishing constitutionally protected speech and truthful information about matters of public interest that people obtained just by witnessing public events.
But as these apps get shutdown and Instagram reels are (potentially) deleted, we need to be saving evidence in advance, and doing so in a collective space that is accessible to the public, journalists, and attorneys. Even if courts rule to reinstate these apps or order big tech to save information (in the event anything is deleted), we could in the interim forgo saving massive amounts of helpful evidence for attorneys, journalists and the public in a centralized location. But more importantly, we can’t be relying on a big tech giants like Apple (whose CEO paid $1 million to attend Trump’s inauguration) and Instagram (whose CEO has cozied up to Trump) for collecting evidence. We need something that is independent.
With that said, one tool I think content creators of any size should all be using upon posting is the Wayback Machine, a 501c3 nonprofit website started in 1996 that archives web pages, videos, audio clips and more. It’s a digital library, and websites, videos and posts can be saved with tags and other helpful features. Saving TikTok and Instagram posts and reels also will help demonstrate to a court any sort of collusion between big tech and the administration. Content creators should also spread the word about this tool by indicating when they’ve saved content to the Wayback Machine and using the hashtag #IUsedWayback.
This is not an ad, the Wayback Machine just a damn good and essential tool for this moment, and I’m not sure how many people know about it. Find it here:
https://archive.org
And let me know if you’ve used it before or whether it’s new to you that this tool exists! I’m very curious.