‘Things were going dark left and right’: the race to save US government datasets before they’re deleted | US news | The Guardian

"In an effort to purge the federal bureaucracy of “woke ideology”, the Trump administration has removed or altered thousands of webpages and data on climate change, reproductive health, international aid, LGBTQ people and more – information that’s used every day to keep people safe, set policy and provide essential services.

“The idea that it could be destroyed in a way that seemed really reckless, and almost pointless, really struck something deep inside me,” André said.

André is part of a group of “data rescuers” who have banded together during Trump’s second term. They have been quietly racing to save hundreds of critical government datasets before they are no longer available. Now known as the Data Rescue Project, it’s a grassroots network of more than 800 people around the world who spend up to 40 hours a week painstakingly archiving the US government’s digital footprint in their spare time.

Anyone can join, but the majority of volunteers are librarians and academics, said Lynda Kellam, a university data librarian and a founding member of the Data Rescue Project. Programmers from the open-source software community and retirees also work on the project. Some, like André, contribute anonymously. What brings everyone together is the belief that “public data should be a public good”, said Kellam."