Suzanne Nossel
The eraser is a key tool of autocrats. Authoritarians wield their power to silence dissent, suppress disfavored narratives, cover up misdeeds, and protect themselves from accountability. In past generations, regimes engaged in painstaking efforts to bury or even burn books, documents, and periodicals perceived to pose a threat to their continued rule, including documentation of their own abuses.
In the digital age, deletion has gone high tech. Repressive governments can make entire websites disappear and erase archives and social media accounts at the push of a button, eliminating historical records and expunging vital information. The ease of erasure at a mass scale raises the pressing need to ensure that vulnerable digital materials—journalism, history, photography, video, government records—are safeguarded. Preserving such records is vital to resurrect shattered cultures, recount stories of oppression, and hold perpetrators accountable. And archiving authoritarianism may prove an essential tool in defeating it.
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