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2025 United States government online resource removals

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The 2025 United States government online resource removals were a series of web page and dataset deletions and modifications across multiple United States federal agencies beginning in January 2025. Following executive orders from President Donald Trump's administration, government organizations removed or modified over 8,000 web pages and approximately 3,000 datasets. The changes primarily affected content related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, gender identity, public health research, environmental policy, and various social programs. Major affected agencies included the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which saw over 3,000 pages altered or removed, and the Census Bureau, which removed about 3,000 pages of research materials. While some content was later restored, the modifications represented significant changes to federal government data accessibility and sparked legal challenges from healthcare advocacy groups.

Background

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Agencies of the United States government share open data for many uses. There are many civic technology, research, and business applications which rely on access to government data.[1] Dataset deletion can be useful maintenance or the result of poor archiving practice.[2] There is little government regulation on dataset management, so it can be challenging to determine when content deletions occur.[2][3] Determining the reasons for removals and the significance of them also is difficult.[3] All administrations make modifications to public websites, but there is little research on how much change is typical.[3] There has been past speculation that previous government changes would result in removed access to data, but those removals did not happen.[4]

In 2009, Data.gov was established to improve public access to high value, machine-readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.[5] In 2019, the OPEN Government Data Act ordered agencies to share data that could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs and to guide policymaking. Various federal agencies release data on their own websites.

In late January 2025, organizations under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) paused their external communication during a review.[6]

Removed and modified content

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On January 29, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ordered agencies to comply with President Trump's executive order, "Defending Women," which requires federal agencies to "recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male".[7][8][9] The organizations were told to terminate any programs and remove any outward facing media, documents, materials, communications, and statements that promote "gender ideology" by January 31.[9][10]

Agencies also moved quickly to comply with the executive order "Ending Radical Government DEI Programs" by removing forbidden terms from their websites.[8][11] Census.gov went offline as it attempted to comply with the executive orders "Reevaluating Foreign Aid" and "Defending Women".[12] The information removals and modifications reflected policy changes championed by the Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign.[13]

Data removal included topics related to DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion),[3] Long COVID,[14] HIV/AIDS,[15] vaccines,[16] transgender and gender identity-related topics,[14][16][15] foreign aid,[12] environmental justice,[12][3][17] emergency management,[12] employment,[12] and the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[18] By February 2, 2025, the content removal included more than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen government websites.[3] According to The New York Times, the removed pages made up approximately 0.1% of all U.S. government web pages.[3]

Some web pages and documents remain accessible, but were stripped of terminology relating to the prohibited topics.[3][17] Terms have been replaced across many government web pages; "climate change" was often replaced by "climate resilience", and "pregnant people" with "pregnant women".[13][8] According to The Washington Post, the most common change to web pages was removing DEI-related terms.[13]

The website modifications also affected older web pages, such as the description of a 2021 conference and a 2022 letter from cabinet secretaries.[13] The Washington Post reported that some pages seemed to be mistakenly modified; the word "diverse" was removed from a page describing the extent of the Department of the Interior's museum collection.[13]

CDC website

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Screenshot of the CDC Environmental Justice Index website with a warning that "any information on this page promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate"

As of February 2, more than 3,000 pages from the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been altered or removed.[3] This included thousands of research papers relating to chronic medical conditions, sexually transmitted infections, Alzheimer's disease, drug overdose prevention, adolescent health, and reproductive care.[3][8]

Vaccine guidelines for pregnant people were also removed from the CDC website, which The New York Times noted may have been due to use of the gender-neutral term "pregnant people".[3] One employee said that since HIV-related webpages commonly referenced gender, they had to "take everything down in order to meet the deadline."[15]

Some data was restored later, such as the Atlas Tool for tracking infectious diseases such as HIV and STIs and information on the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.[8] As of February 6, the CDC website had the notice, "CDC's website is being modified to comply with President Trump's Executive Orders."[8]

Science and research websites

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More than 3,000 pages from the Census Bureau website were removed as of February 2, primarily including articles filed under research and methodology.[3] Pages relating to data stewardship as well as survey and data set documentation were also removed.[3]

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed more than 100 pages as of February 2, including dozens of regulatory guidelines on topics such as increasing diversity in clinical trials and the potential for addiction and abuse in drug studies.[3]

Close to 50 research papers from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information – part of the Department of Energy – were removed as of February 2. The removed papers covered a range of subjects, such as chemistry, optics, and experimental medicine.[3]

20 pages from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) website were removed as of February 2, including a page documenting the organization's zero-tolerance harassment policy.[3]

Justice and crime websites

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At least 1,000 pages from the Office of Justice Programs, a crime prevention research organization, were removed as of February 2. This included information on violence in teenage dating, and a blog post regarding grants that went toward combating hate crimes.[3]

The Department of Justice (DOJ) removed over 180 pages as of February 2, including all state-level crime data and seven pages with information on anti-LGBTQ hate crimes.[3]

The Marshals Service saw two pages removed, relating to correctional facility standards and fitness readiness requirements.[3]

Healthcare and social services websites

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Head Start, a U.S. federal aid program for low-income childcare, had over 200 pages removed as of February 2, including advice on establishing familial routines and guidance to help prevent postpartum depression.[3] The removals followed a freeze of federal funds to the program days earlier.[19][20]

As of February 2, nearly 150 pages had been removed from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website. This included more than 50 press releases about using a helpline following shootings or natural disasters.[3]

The Health Resources and Services Administration deleted 18 pages from their website as of February 2, including information on the Mpox vaccine and opioid addiction among women.[3]

Three pages from the Department of Veterans Affairs were removed as of February 2, including information on healthcare for minority and LGBTQ veterans, as well as the equity of the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System.[3]

ReproductiveRights.gov, an HHS website providing information on reproductive care, was taken offline.[15][21] The website was launched by the Biden administration following the overruling of Roe v. Wade.[21]

Other websites

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The Internal Revenue Service removed more than 25 pages as of February 2, including a form that private schools are required to submit annually to certify that they had not engaged in racial discrimination.[3]

As of February 2, there were 18 pages removed from the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, including information about veteran inventors and entrepreneurs, and a high school program teaching about intellectual property.[3]

The Department of the Interior removed eight pages from their website as of February 2, including several with information on environmental policy initiatives. The New York Times speculated that some of the pages may have been removed due to the use of the phrase "environmental justice".[3]

As of February 3, four pages from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have been deleted, including an overview of the commission's equal employment opportunity and diversity initiatives.[3]

The FSA's Office of Minority Health and Health Equity website was removed, and the NIH’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion website now redirects to an equal employment opportunity web page.[15]

Datasets

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In January 2025, the government removed about 3,000 datasets from various platforms.[2] Many deleted datasets came from the Department of Energy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency.[2]

Affected datasets
Dataset Description Organization Notes
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System widely used national health survey Centers for Disease Control [7]
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System high school student social determinants of health CDC [7][22]
CDC AtlasPlus HIV, viral hepatitis, STI, and TB, social determinants of health CDC [7]
PEPFAR Dashboard PEPFAR programs Department of State, Global AIDS Coordinator [7]
Demographic and Health Surveys population, health, HIV, and nutrition data from many countries USAID, ICF International [7]
foreignassistance.gov foreign aid data by country, budget, expenditure, program Department of State, Agency for International Development [7]
Household Pulse Survey long COVID CDC [14]
Social Vulnerability Index Relative deprivation CDC [22][17]
Environmental Justice Index Identifies areas "most at risk for the health impacts of environmental burden."[23] CDC [17][23]
Employment Situation Unemployment in the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics [12]
Federal criminal charge records January 6 United States Capitol attack United States Department of Justice [18]
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Doctors for America sued the U.S. government to restore health information, arguing "The removal of this information deprives researchers of access to information that is necessary for treating patients ... and for developing practices and policies that protect the health of vulnerable populations and the country as a whole."[17] In response, a federal judge issued a restraining order on February 11, 2025, requiring certain websites from the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC, and the FDA to be restored.[24][25]

American Federation of Teachers and Minority Veterans of America and Public Citizen Litigation Group also filed lawsuits.[26][17]

Reactions

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Representatives from the Population Association of America, the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, and the Association of Public Data Users (APDU) expressed disapproval of the data deletion.[27] President of the APDU, Amy O'Hara, described a "mad scramble" as researchers searched for copies of the deleted data.[27]

The stock market, bond market, and Federal Reserve all continuously make decisions based on labor data.[12] This data is typically stable, but changes to it reduce confidence in data about the economy.[12] Uncertainty also encourages conspiracy theories which view government data as intentionally incorrect for malicious purposes.[12]

Scientists reacted by saying that they would restore access to some data, but doing so is not easy.[12] The Internet Archive has been successful in archiving many health datasets.[28] Internet Archive is also a contributor to the consortium effort of developing the End of Term Web Archive, which attempts to copy every government publication at the end of every presidential term.[29][30]

The Harvard Law School Library hosts the Data.gov Archive.[31][32][33] The Chan School mirrored public health records.[34] A coalition of data organizations launched the Data Rescue Project "as a clearinghouse for data rescue-related efforts".[35][36] The law library's Innovation Lab said that it had managed to preserve 311,000 datasets copied between 2024 and 2025.[33]

Head of American Public Health Association, George Benjamin, said that the removals could make it more difficult to track infection diseases, such as HIV and Mpox.[17] He also expressed concern that even if the data was restored, new data might not be collected which would impair future research.[17]

Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) executive office, Nate Brought, said that Trump's orders were in conflict with extensive research and conclusions by the NIH pertaining to sexuality and gender.[9] In a letter to the NIH director and other senior officials, Brought urged them to refuse implementing the President's directives.[9]

References

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  1. ^ Hughes-Cromwick, Ellen; Coronado, Julia (February 1, 2019). "The Value of US Government Data to US Business Decisions". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 33 (1): 131–146. doi:10.1257/jep.33.1.131.
  2. ^ a b c d Mauran, Cecily (January 31, 2025). "Thousands of datasets from Data.gov have disappeared since Trump's inauguration. What's going on?". Mashable. Archived from the original on February 10, 2025. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Singer, Ethan (February 2, 2025). "Thousands of U.S. Government Web Pages Have Been Taken Down Since Friday". The New York Times.
  4. ^ Chappellet-Lanier, Tajha (February 28, 2018). "If open data sets aren't being deleted, is government data still 'endangered'?". FedScoop. Archived from the original on July 20, 2024. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  5. ^ "About data.gov". Data.gov. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  6. ^ Edwards, Erika; Lovelace Jr., Berkeley (January 23, 2025). "HHS official halts CDC reports and health communications for Trump team review". NBC News.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Cox, Cynthia; Rae, Matthew; Kates, Jennifer; Wager, Emma; Ortaliza, Jared; Published, Lindsey Dawson (February 2, 2025). "A Look at Federal Health Data Taken Offline". Kaiser Family Foundation. Archived from the original on February 10, 2025. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Stone, Will; Huang, Pien (February 6, 2025). "Some federal health websites restored, others still down, after data purge". NPR. Archived from the original on February 13, 2025. Retrieved February 13, 2025.
  9. ^ a b c d Steenhuysen, Julie; Hesson, Ted (January 31, 2025). "US health agencies scrubbing websites to remove 'gender ideology'". Reuters. Retrieved February 17, 2025.
  10. ^ Ezell, Charles (January 29, 2025). "Initial Guidance Regarding President Trump's Executive Order Defending Women" (PDF). United States Office of Personnel Management. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 9, 2025. Retrieved February 17, 2025.
  11. ^ Novak, Matt (February 5, 2025). "The List of Trump's Forbidden Words That Will Get Your Paper Flagged at NSF". Gizmodo. Retrieved February 17, 2025.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j O’Leary, Lizzie (February 4, 2025). "Unfortunately, the Economy Runs On the Data Trump Is Trying to Delete". Slate. Archived from the original on February 11, 2025. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  13. ^ a b c d e Merrill, Jeremy B.; Paybarah, Azi; Lau, Eric (January 31, 2025). "How federal agencies have already changed their websites under Trump". The Washington Post.
  14. ^ a b c Ladyzhets, Betsy (January 31, 2025). "Breaking: Vital Long COVID data taken down following Trump order - The Sick Times". thesicktimes.org. Archived from the original on February 6, 2025. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  15. ^ a b c d e Lovelace Jr., Berkeley; Ryan, Benjamin (January 31, 2025). "CDC site scrubs HIV content following Trump DEI policies". NBC News.
  16. ^ a b Mosbergen, Dominique; McKay, Betsy; Kusisto, Laura; Whitton, Brian (January 31, 2025). "Vaccine Information, Transgender References Disappear From Federal Websites". WSJ. Archived from the original on February 10, 2025. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h "As Trump hits delete, the race is on to save LGBTQ and climate data". NBC News. Reuters. February 11, 2025. Retrieved February 17, 2025.
  18. ^ a b "Deletion of Jan 6 charges database appears to violate the law". Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. January 30, 2025. Archived from the original on February 2, 2025. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  19. ^ "Still locked out of federal funding, several Head Start preschools may need to close temporarily". AP News. February 4, 2025. Retrieved February 18, 2025.
  20. ^ Balingit, Moriah (January 28, 2025). "Head Start and Medicaid providers hit glitches as Trump freezes federal money". AP News. Retrieved February 18, 2025.
  21. ^ a b Simmons-Duffin, Selena (January 21, 2025). "Trump's federal health website scrubs 'abortion' search results". NPR. Retrieved February 18, 2025.
  22. ^ a b Gaffney, Theresa (January 31, 2025). "CDC removal of databases on sexual orientation, gender identity sparks alarm". STAT.
  23. ^ a b CDC (December 3, 2024). "Environmental Justice Index". Place and Health - Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Services Program (GRASP). Archived from the original on February 13, 2025. Retrieved February 17, 2025.
  24. ^ Pierson, Brendan (February 11, 2025). "Trump administration ordered to restore removed CDC and FDA websites".
  25. ^ Dunbar, Marina (February 11, 2025). "Judge orders CDC and FDA to restore webpages removed after Trump order".
  26. ^ Whisnant, Gabe; Sheth, Sonam (February 4, 2025). "Doctors Sue Trump Administration for Scrubbing Data from Government Sites". Newsweek. Archived from the original on February 11, 2025. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  27. ^ a b Stobbe, Mike; Schneider, Mike (February 3, 2025). "Trump administration's data deletions set off 'a mad scramble,' researcher says". AP News. Retrieved February 18, 2025.
  28. ^ Belanger, Ashley (February 4, 2025). "Internet Archive played crucial role in tracking shady CDC data removals". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on February 11, 2025. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  29. ^ Adams, Caralee (February 6, 2025). "Update on the 2024/2025 End of Term Web Archive". Internet Archive.
  30. ^ Koebler, Jason (January 30, 2025). "Archivists Work to Identify and Save the Thousands of Datasets Disappearing From Data.gov". 404 Media. Archived from the original on February 10, 2025. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  31. ^ Library Innovation Lab Team (February 6, 2025). "Announcing the Data.gov Archive". lil.law.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on February 11, 2025. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  32. ^ Nietzel, Michael T. (February 9, 2025). "Harvard, Others Saving Data As Trump's Team Scrubs Federal Webpages". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 10, 2025. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  33. ^ a b Satter, Raphael (February 6, 2025). "Harvard law library acts to preserve government data amid sweeping purges". reuters.com. Reuters.
  34. ^ Miller, Naseem S. (January 31, 2025). "Researchers rush to preserve government health data". The Journalist's Resource. Archived from the original on February 11, 2025. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  35. ^ "PEGI Project Urges Preservation of Public Federal Data". Preservation of Electronic Government Information. February 14, 2025. Retrieved February 17, 2025.
  36. ^ "About Data Rescue Project". Data Rescue Project. February 10, 2025. Retrieved February 17, 2025.

Further reading

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