[helle253]

why in the world is this being sunset i wonder

[sixdimensional]

I concur.

Also, it was paid for by US taxpayer dollars - the entire content should have been released somewhere for free, maybe even someone would have started up a new project to maintain it, for example, something under Wikimedia or some other nonprofit.

This wholesale elimination of valuable information and data owned by the public is so incredibly sad and damaging to our future.

Maybe we need a FOIA request to get the entire contents released to the public.

[oxfeed65261]

It seems to be archived on the wayback machine, for example https://web.archive.org/web/20260203163430/https://www.cia.g...

It was available for online browsing or as a downloadable file, I think a zip compressed PDF. I’m sure copies are available, but it would be nice to have an authoritative source.

[rbanffy]

> Maybe we need a FOIA request to get the entire contents released to the public.

That’s a sound idea.

[shevy-java]

Agreed. Though perhaps they will open source some stuff. What would interest me is HOW they got the information they showed.

[hulitu]

Social media is much more suited to spread propaganda.

[joezydeco]

Metafilter has a theory: "Apparently the judge in the Haitian TPS case cited the Factbook in her injunction ruling. There's quite a bit of speculation that that's why it's gone now."

[mavhc]

Facts are not a thing the government is interested in now

[mr_toad]

> Facts are not a thing the government is interested in now

They’re not too keen on the world either. Or books.

[red-iron-pine]

in particular, these are facts that are officially released by an organ of the US Government responsible for accurate information.

these details are useful for things like immigration and asylum cases, and other complaints that involve the FedGov.

[rbanffy]

Nor is soft power.

The factbook was much more a tool for propaganda than anything else. While you could trust most of the numbers, you shouldn’t expect it to be fair about any socialist or communist countries, usually classified as brutal dictatorships, while it would always be exceedingly kind to countries with US sponsored dictators.

[hn_acc1]

To avoid pesky facts getting in the way of them attempting to re-write history, like in 1984 (the book).

[themafia]

The internet now exists and easily surpasses the value of this static publication.

[varun_ch]

The World Factbook was a really useful resource on the internet.

[thaumasiotes]

The existence of secondary sources doesn't reduce the need for primary sources. Before something can be published everywhere, it has to be published somewhere.

[MattGaiser]

This is an odd thing to say for something heavily used on the internet. It was not just a physical book.

[tombert]

Has it though? Isn't one of the concerns of information on the internet (regardless of political affiliation) that a lot of it is total bullshit?

I've seen so many responses from AI and AI "Summaries" that source claims from 20 year old unsourced forum posts. For that matter, people just make shit up, all the time, often for no apparent reason. It's upsetting that it took me until my 30's to realize that, but regardless I think there is value in canonical, well-funded sources, even with the internet.