Ars Technica: Google tool misused to scrub tech CEO’s shady past from search. “Google is fond of saying its mission is to ‘organize the world’s information,’ but who gets to decide what information is worthy of organization? A San Francisco tech CEO has spent the past several years attempting to remove unflattering information about himself from Google’s search index, and the nonprofit […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/07/31/ars-technica-google-tool-misused-to-scrub-tech-ceos-shady-past-from-search/

CNBC: YouTube wipes out thousands of propaganda channels linked to China, Russia, others. “These campaigns primarily shared content in Chinese and English that promoted the People’s Republic of China, supported President Xi Jinping and commented on U.S. foreign affairs. Over 2,000 removed channels were linked to Russia. The content was in multiple languages that supported Russia and […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/07/23/cnbc-youtube-wipes-out-thousands-of-propaganda-channels-linked-to-china-russia-others/

Court News Ohio: Clerk of Court Cannot Block Online Access to Older Eviction Records. “The Hamilton County Clerk of Courts cannot defy a judicial order by eliminating remote access to online court records of older, residential eviction cases, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/06/19/court-news-ohio-clerk-of-court-cannot-block-online-access-to-older-eviction-records/

Data Rescue Project: Why We’re Starting a New Federal Data Forum. “[Population Reference Bureau] recently launched the Federal Data Forum—a centralized online community designed to unite public data stakeholders in defense of America’s statistical infrastructure. The initiative builds on PRB’s previous work as data intermediaries, including our American Community Survey Online Community, […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/06/18/data-rescue-project-why-were-starting-a-new-federal-data-forum/

SFGATE: MLB curiously removes A’s ‘reverse boycott’ game broadcasts from digital archive. “It’s been two years since Oakland A’s fans joined forces to make one of the loudest statements possible with a ‘reverse boycott,’ showing out in force to a Tuesday night game to protest against A’s owner John Fisher and his plan to move the team. Now, on the two-year anniversary of the forceful […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/06/16/sfgate-mlb-curiously-removes-as-reverse-boycott-game-broadcasts-from-digital-archive/

The Journalist’s Resource: When health data disappears: 8 tips for finding what’s hidden from public view . “As the U.S. government continues to remove data and make radical changes to its websites, reporters are encountering health data that’s incomplete, altered or missing entirely. At the Association of Health Care Journalists’ annual conference in Los Angeles on May 30, a panel of […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/06/15/when-health-data-disappears-8-tips-for-finding-whats-hidden-from-public-view-the-journalists-resource/

PC World: Clean up your X (Twitter) account with this handy free tool. “Want to clear out your old posts on X (formerly Twitter) without deleting your entire account? That’s where Cyd comes in. It doesn’t use X’s API, so instead of relying on third-party permissions, it works by simulating how you’d manually delete content yourself.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/06/10/pc-world-clean-up-your-x-twitter-account-with-this-handy-free-tool/

BREAKING: #CivitAI bravely ventures into the realm of not being sued by removing content depicting real people. Because nothing screams #innovation like deleting a bunch of celebrity knock-offs to please the almighty payment processors.
https://civitai.com/articles/15022/policy-update-removal-of-real-person-likeness-content #ContentRemoval #CelebrityKnockOffs #PaymentProcessors #HackerNews #ngated

MuckRock: TSA complaint data disappeared. Here’s where you can still find it.. “Not long ago, I did a routine check-in on a project I hadn’t thought about in a while: a Data Liberation Project repo that scrapes and archives Transportation Security Administration (TSA) traveler complaints. It was supposed to be a quick check-in—just restart the scraper GitHub had paused for inactivity. […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/20/muckrock-tsa-complaint-data-disappeared-heres-where-you-can-still-find-it/

PressGazette, and once again I promise I did not intentionally put these articles together: Facebook deactivated journalist’s account for posting story about sex offender. “Facebook deactivated the personal account of a local news journalist who posted a link to a story about a sex offender on the page of her employer. A Facebook page for Iliffe-owned Kent radio station KMFM was also […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/18/pressgazette-facebook-deactivated-journalists-account-for-posting-story-about-sex-offender/

New York Times: These Internal Documents Show Why We Shouldn’t Trust Porn Companies. This link goes to a gift article. “One internal document indicates that Pornhub as of May 2020 had 706,000 videos available on the site that had been flagged by users for depicting rape or assaults on children or for other problems. That was partly because, the documents suggest, Pornhub did not necessarily […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/16/new-york-times-these-internal-documents-show-why-we-shouldnt-trust-porn-companies/

International Business Times: Web Archivists Scrambling To Save US Public Data From Deletion. “As President Donald Trump’s administration purges public records since storming back to power, experts and volunteers are preserving thousands of web pages and government sites devoted to climate change, health or LGBTQ rights and other issues.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/08/international-business-times-web-archivists-scrambling-to-save-us-public-data-from-deletion/

TorrentFreak: Link-Busters Reports its Three Billionth ‘Pirate’ URL to Google Search. “In the escalating war against online book piracy, Dutch takedown outfit Link-Busters continues to shatter records. In less than a year, the company reported over two billion pirate URLs to Google search, reaching a milestone of three billion reported URLs overall. While the volume is impressive, it also […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/04/torrentfreak-link-busters-reports-its-three-billionth-pirate-url-to-google-search/

The Eagle (American University): American University librarians take up the mantle with government data rescue project. “A team of four librarians at American University is joining a nationwide effort to preserve removed or redacted data in a Government Information Data Rescue guide. Editors Jessica Breen, Gwendolyn Reece, Olivia Ivey and Sarah Gilchrist each bring their own expertise to the […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/02/the-eagle-american-university-librarians-take-up-the-mantle-with-government-data-rescue-project/

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Exit to Open. “What happens when a nonprofit program or an entire organization needs to shut down? The communities being served, and often society as a whole, are the losers. What if it were possible to mitigate some of that damage by sharing valuable intellectual property assets of the closing effort for longer term benefit? Organizations in these tough […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/28/stanford-social-innovation-review-exit-to-open/

The Mainichi: Japan cultural agency deletes ancient figurines from website after forgery claims . “Three artifacts described as ‘dogu’ earthenware figurines from Japan’s ancient Jomon period were removed from the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Cultural Heritage Online portal after external claims questioning their authenticity, agency sources confirmed.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/25/the-mainichi-japan-cultural-agency-deletes-ancient-figurines-from-website-after-forgery-claims/

BBC: Inside the desperate rush to save decades of US scientific data from deletion. “No one knows when the next alert or request to save a chunk of US government-held climate data will come in. Such data, long available online, keeps getting taken down by US President Donald Trump’s administration. For the last six months or so, Cathy Richards has been entrenched in the response. She works […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/24/bbc-inside-the-desperate-rush-to-save-decades-of-us-scientific-data-from-deletion/

Ideastream Public Radio: Webmaster told to remove DEI pages from CWRU site. She refused. “‘You cave into these demands, and you’re no different from the other side,’ [Marie] Vibbert said. ‘This is very against Case’s values… We have a very diverse student population, especially in the graduate schools, and it’s like we’re throwing our core audience under the bus for people in power who […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/16/ideastream-public-radio-webmaster-told-to-remove-dei-pages-from-cwru-site-she-refused/

National Press Foundation: Data Helps Tell Education Stories, and Journalists Need to Find the Best Sources. “Rachel Rush-Marlowe, the founder and executive director of the education policy think tank ResearchEd and a former Education Department employee, spoke with NPF’s Widening the Pipeline fellows about how to access education data and accurately represent what the statistics […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/15/national-press-foundation-data-helps-tell-education-stories-and-journalists-need-to-find-the-best-sources/

Houston Chronicle: Texas bill threatens $500,000 daily fines for museums displaying ‘obscene’ art. “A new bill introduced in the Texas legislature could fine museums $500,000 per day if they display ‘obscene’ works of art, months after GOP officials sought to remove photographs involving nude children from a museum in Fort Worth.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/15/houston-chronicle-texas-bill-threatens-500000-daily-fines-for-museums-displaying-obscene-art/