Deletion of United States government data
In February 2025, the United States government enacted the deletion of United States government data. This deletion included modifying the text of websites and removal of webpages and datasets.
Researchers who relied on those datasets disapproved of the removal. There were some institutions which organized archiving and mirroring of removed content.
Background
[edit]Agencies of the United States government share open data for many uses. There is a robust ecosystem of civic technology, research, and business applications which rely on access to government data.[1]
Individual agencies share data on their own platforms. In 2009, Data.gov was established as a central platform for even more datasharing. 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.
Orders to change media
[edit]In late January 2025 organizations under the Department of Health and Human Services paused their external communication during a review.[2]
In February 2025, the Office of Personnel Management ordered agencies to comply with the presidential executive orders "Ending Radical Government DEI Programs", "Reevaluating Foreign Aid", "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism".[3] Organizations complied by removing data. Data removal at this time included topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion,[4] Long COVID,[5] gender ideology,[4][5] HIV/AIDS.[6] vaccines,[7] transgender topics,[7] foreign aid,[8] environmental justice,[8] emergency management,[8] employment,[8] and the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[9]
Changed content
[edit]Websites
[edit]By early February 2025, the content removal included more than 8000 web pages.[4] Organizations with affected websites included Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Census Bureau, Office of Justice Programs, Head Start, Department of Justice, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Food and Drug Administration, Office of Scientific and Technical Information, Internal Revenue Service, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Health Resources and Services Administration, the Patent and Trademark Office, the Department of the Interior, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Marshals Service.[4]
Datasets
[edit]In January 2025, the government removed about 3000 datasets from various platforms.[10]
Many deleted datasets came from the Department of Energy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency.[10]
| Affected datasets | ||||||
| Dataset | Description | Organization | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System | widely used national health survey | Centers for Disease Control | [3] | |||
| Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System | high school student social determinants of health | CDC | [3][11] | |||
| CDC AtlasPlus | HIV, viral hepatitis, STI, and TB, social determinants of health | CDC | [3] | |||
| PEPFAR Dashboard | PEPFAR programs | Department of State, Global AIDS Coordinator | [3] | |||
| Demographic and Health Surveys | population, health, HIV, and nutrition data from many countries | USAID, ICF International | [3] | |||
| foreignassistance.gov | foreign aid data by country, budget, expenditure, program | Department of State, Agency for International Development | [3] | |||
| Household Pulse Survey | long COVID | CDC | [5] | |||
| Social Vulnerability Index | Relative deprivation | CDC | [11] | |||
| Employment Situation | Unemployment in the United States | Bureau of Labor Statistics | [8] | |||
| federal criminal charge records | January 6 United States Capitol attack | United States Department of Justice | [9] | |||
Reaction
[edit]Representatives from the Population Association of America, the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, and the Association of Public Data Users expressed disapproval of the data deletion.[12] Doctors for America and Public Citizen Litigation Group sued for restoration of the health information.[13]
Dataset deletion can be useful maintenance or the result of poor archiving practice.[10] There is little government regulation on dataset management, so sometimes it is challenging to determine the cause of the deletion.[10] Even determining where and how web platforms change is a challenge.[4] Determining the significance of changes also is difficult.[4] All administrations change things, but there is no available research to report how much change is typical.[4]
The stock market, bond market, and Federal Reserve all continuously make decisions based on labor data.[8] This data is typically stable, but changes to it reduce confidence in data about the economy.[8] Uncertainty also encourages conspiracy theories which view government data as intentionally incorrect for malicious purposes.[8]
Scientists reacted by saying that they would restore access to some data, but doing so is not easy.[8] The Internet Archive has been successful in archiving many health datasets.[14] 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.[15][16]
The Harvard Law School Library hosts the Data.gov Archive.[17][18][19] The Chan School mirrored public health records.[20]
History
[edit]There had been past speculation that previous government changes would result in removed access to data.[21] That removal did not happen.[21]
References
[edit]- ^ Hughes-Cromwick, Ellen; Coronado, Julia (1 February 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.
- ^ Edwards, Erika; Lovelace Jr., Berkeley (23 January 2025). "HHS official halts CDC reports and health communications for Trump team review". NBC News.
- ^ a b c d e f g Cox, Cynthia; Rae, Matthew; Kates, Jennifer; Wager, Emma; Ortaliza, Jared; Published, Lindsey Dawson (2 February 2025). "A Look at Federal Health Data Taken Offline". Kaiser Family Foundation.
- ^ a b c d e f g Singer, Ethan (2 February 2025). "Thousands of U.S. Government Web Pages Have Been Taken Down Since Friday". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c Ladyzhets, Betsy (31 January 2025). "Breaking: Vital Long COVID data taken down following Trump order - The Sick Times". thesicktimes.org.
- ^ Lovelace Jr., Berkeley; Ryan, Benjamin (31 January 2025). "CDC site scrubs HIV content following Trump DEI policies". NBC News.
- ^ a b Whitton, Dominique Mosbergen, Betsy McKay, Laura Kusisto and Brian (31 January 2025). "Vaccine Information, Transgender References Disappear From Federal Websites". WSJ.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d e f g h i O’Leary, Lizzie (4 February 2025). "Unfortunately, the Economy Runs On the Data Trump Is Trying to Delete". Slate.
- ^ a b "Deletion of Jan 6 charges database appears to violate the law". Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. 30 January 2025.
- ^ a b c d Mauran, Cecily (31 January 2025). "Thousands of datasets from Data.gov have disappeared since Trump's inauguration. What's going on?". Mashable.
- ^ a b Gaffney, Theresa (31 January 2025). "CDC removal of databases on sexual orientation, gender identity sparks alarm". STAT.
- ^ STOBBE, MIKE; SCHNEIDER, MIKE (3 February 2025). "Trump administration's data deletions set off 'a mad scramble,' researcher says". Minnesota Star Tribune.
- ^ Whisnant, Gabe; Sheth, Sonam (4 February 2025). "Doctors Sue Trump Administration for Scrubbing Data from Government Sites". Newsweek.
- ^ Belanger, Ashley (4 February 2025). "Internet Archive played crucial role in tracking shady CDC data removals". Ars Technica.
- ^ Adams, Caralee (6 February 2025). "Update on the 2024/2025 End of Term Web Archive". Internet Archive.
- ^ Koebler, Jason (30 January 2025). "Archivists Work to Identify and Save the Thousands of Datasets Disappearing From Data.gov". 404 Media.
- ^ Library Innovation Lab Team (6 February 2025). "Announcing the Data.gov Archive". lil.law.harvard.edu.
- ^ Nietzel, Michael T. (9 February 2025). "Harvard, Others Saving Data As Trump's Team Scrubs Federal Webpages". Forbes.
- ^ Satter, Raphael (6 February 2025). "Harvard law library acts to preserve government data amid sweeping purges". reuters.com. Reuters.
- ^ Miller, Naseem S. (31 January 2025). "Researchers rush to preserve government health data". The Journalist's Resource.
- ^ a b Chappellet-Lanier, Tajha (28 February 2018). "If open data sets aren't being deleted, is government data still 'endangered'?". FedScoop.
Further consideration
[edit]- Jetelina, Katelyn (4 February 2025). "Data and communication are gold". Your Local Epidemiologist.
- MD, Jeremy Faust (1 February 2025). "Massive censorship escalation at CDC. Trump Administration now choosing the public health data you can see". Inside Medicine.