The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions!
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@simon I think it was the word "fact" that let the fascists react. Although, as a European, I would never trust the CIA as a source of facts. Never.
Thanks for saving data.@NatureMC @simon Back in the early internet I used that website often. It was fairly neutral, hard data. A very useful tool. Goverments use intelligence services for all kind of nefarious purposes but intelligence services usually hire a lot of talented people with out of the norm curiosity and interest about the world. The factbook was PR but it was also an expression of that interest and curiosity
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@NatureMC @simon Back in the early internet I used that website often. It was fairly neutral, hard data. A very useful tool. Goverments use intelligence services for all kind of nefarious purposes but intelligence services usually hire a lot of talented people with out of the norm curiosity and interest about the world. The factbook was PR but it was also an expression of that interest and curiosity
@elhombremalo I believe you.
But as a journalist, I trust only independent sources. And you say yourself that it was PR for the CIA.I see the deletion of that site as only a part of the fascist fight against facts, knowledge, and education.
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The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions!
This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/the-world-factbook/
@simon what a shame. I used this extensively in undergrad (International Affairs)
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