Democracy Dies in Darkness

The world’s largest internet archive is under siege — and fighting back

Hackers breached the Internet Archive, whose outsize cultural importance belies a small budget and lean infrastructure.

7 min

A man in a blue shirt and glasses stands outside of a white columned building. — Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive, stands outside its San Francisco headquarters. (Courtesy of the Internet Archive)

October 18, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

There are few organizations dedicated to the gargantuan task of preserving the vast, ever-shifting record of human activity that is the internet. The largest such record belongs to a nonprofit based in an old church in San Francisco that operates on a smaller annual budget than the D.C. Public Library.

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Post

You can cancel anytime.

It is currently under siege.

By Daniel Wu

Daniel Wu is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. He joined The Post as an intern on the Metro desk in 2022 and previously worked for the Seattle Times and the San Jose Mercury News. @danswu

Create an account to redeem your FREE article