Internet Archive Europe – Bringing Collections to Life
36 comments
·March 24, 2025barbazoo
ajsnigrutin
> protect against rewriting of history
I'd be much happier if this was regulated directly for the media.
On multiple occasions i've seen an article on reddit, read it, had a long argument about something, and they quote a part of the article I never saw, and when I click on the article, the title is different, the content is different, the "truth" is different. No "this article was edited", no "click here to see previous revisions", no nothing. And i'm talking about hours since the article was posted and the change.
Going years back is even worse, things i clearly remember happening, don't exist in the media anymore, here and there i found an old reddit comment with a link (+ wayback machine) to find what was written then, but without a link, that content "doesn't exist anymore".
Just mandate keeping all revisions of articles, even deleted ones directly, so anyone can see the previous version directly on the site, without needing a third party service and guessing the dates when the changes were made (but that 3rd party service can still work as a verification to check if they really kept everything).
Sites like wikipedia rely on media for many things, and consider what the media writes as "the truth" (not all media, just the one blessed by wikipedia admins), and changing media stories also means changing wikipedia, which already is the only source of info many people use even today.
panza
I wonder if there's a commercial incentive for a news outlet to choose to do this - "we don't hide, never delete articles, preserve history etc..."
Or perhaps just some middle ground between 'we delete, change and hide articles' and 'this link is forever and here's the full diff history'.
ta1243
You're fighting the battles of the last decade. The truth is what chatgpt spits out now, not wikipedia.
ajsnigrutin
ChatGPT is even worse... it's like a college student with good rethoric/speaking skills, but lacking knowledge. It can confidently spurt out total bullshit, that then gets pasted on reddit/HN/..., and a new iteration of "AI" learns from that.
It can't even get recipes right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVaYJgmPvCg
hulitu
> Just mandate keeping all revisions of articles, even deleted ones directly, so anyone can see the previous version directly on the site
That's not how rewriting history works. /s
mellosouls
Some other countries have their own (legally mandated and publicly funded) web archives, and have had them for a decade and more. The Internet Archive led (and leads) the way, but this is an established and growing medium now.
fweimer
Most jurisdictions with stable, unfiltered Internet connectivity view copyright not as something that has been granted by the government. It's closer to a human right there. It's simply not possible to operate a publicly accessible Internet-Archive-type service in such jurisdictions legally. The United States are a big exception.
outside1234
You are saying copyright is viewed as a human right?
fweimer
Yes, like other property rights. Creators have a natural right to copyright protection of their works.
zozbot234
The Internet Archive hosts copies of a lot of public domain content that they could mirror in the EU. Not sure why copyright should be an issue wrt. such a service.
skyyler
There's one in Alexandria, I believe.
I agree that there should be more.
outside1234
Alexandria Egypt? Or is this a joke comment?
skyyler
Yes, Alexandria Egypt.
No, this is not a joke.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive#/media/File:I...
It is kind of funny that they chose to put it there, given the history of the super famous library in the ancient city.
hulitu
> to protect against rewriting of history.
too late.
axiologist
Apparently this is not a European mirror of the AI but (still?) only a landing page for the announcement of intent of an associated project. No content whatsoever can be browsed (yet).
frozenseven
Announcement of a project that's been around since 2004? Interesting to say the least.
beaugunderson
My guess is that's a typo and they meant 2024... this is the earliest I can find of it on the web:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230419191753/https://stichting...
blmurch
No, it is not a typo. We were founded in 2004.
esskay
For anyone confused, this isn't a EU based archiving service like the main Internet Archive. It's a vaguely worded plan of "tools" and "collections", whatever that means.
Their BlueSky profile pretty much sums up the program:
> Internet Archive Europe, a Dutch non-profit research library, is building collections and tools to bring them to life. Working with libraries, museums, and archives, we share these tools and collections to further everyone’s services.
beaugunderson
Brewster Kahle was the founding chairman of their board, though, and remains a board member.
blmurch
Hello there! I am the Program Manager for IAE. No we are not a full mirror but are busy building alliances here in Europe.
pabs3
Please do think about a full mirror. The Software Heritage mirror partner ENEA might be good people to talk to. I think grnet might also be a future SWH mirror.
blmurch
We met with them at FOSDEM - good people! https://bsky.app/profile/internetarchive.eu/post/3lho6kdye5k...
outside1234
Is there a way to download a particular IA archive via torrent or otherwise?
null
> The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization
Would be prudent to speed up development of "mirrors" in other jurisdictions to protect against rewriting of history. I imagine that's what autocrats will do in the end.