A Cultural Tragedy

Many Twitter users have likened the end of Yahoo Answers to the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. Though this may sound extreme, considering the multitude of websites that have vanished in recent years, the analogy begins to resonate. We are facing the extinction of a vast archive filled with questions, answers, comments, and interactions that could serve as invaluable resources for researchers seeking to understand social and cultural trends from over a decade of content. Once deleted, this treasure trove of knowledge will be irretrievably lost.

The closure of platforms like Fotolog, Google+, and Friendster has already resulted in significant data loss. While I never personally used Fotolog, I recall its immense popularity in Brazil during my youth. Many of my friends lost irreplaceable photographs of cherished moments when Fotolog ceased operations.

The Ongoing Cycle of Digital Loss

Websites frequently disappear, taking with them years of accumulated knowledge and materials that could inform future ethnographic and anthropological studies. As a researcher, I have often struggled to recover content from defunct pages and forgotten online discussions. I frequently rely on interviews with individuals whose memories are often fuzzy, as their digital archives have vanished.

Whether due to unpaid hosting fees, a site's bankruptcy, or unexpected changes in terms of service, vast reservoirs of information are lost without a trace.

We often assume that unlike previous societies, we can document everything today. We believe future generations will have unfettered access to information about our current society. However, this belief is misleading.

Beyond the Bias of Historical Records

Ignoring the biases inherent in preserved information, we cannot even begin to address the complexities of bias and misinformation within historical records if we lack access to files from just a decade ago. The challenge is compounded by outdated file formats and the obsolescence of storage devices like USB drives and CDs. Society struggles to maintain comprehensive records and backup our collective memory.

Despite containing far-right content, Yahoo Answers has fostered a unique online culture, with many of its answers evolving into popular memes. Its closure will signify a tremendous loss for internet culture. Through the myriad memes spawned from absurd questions and answers, we can trace social transformations and understand what captured people's imaginations at specific times — all of which will soon fade away.

The Cost of Forgetting Our History

Our tendency to overlook the importance of our history and collective memory is concerning. Consider GeoCities: when Yahoo shut it down in 2009, it hosted over 38 million pages dating back to 1994, at a time when the internet was in its infancy. The knowledge lost due to its closure is immeasurable.

The closure of services like GeoCities and Yahoo Answers is akin to incinerating thousands or millions of books. Today, it may seem trivial to preserve a teenager's blog or frivolous questions posed to strangers, but in 50, 100, or even 500 years, this content could be foundational for significant historiographic studies. These digital artifacts can help future generations comprehend contemporary society and the mindset of individuals in this era. It is through small snippets of information, whether personal diaries or historical narratives, that we construct or reconstruct the memory of a period.

The Threat of Knowledge Loss

The risk of losing websites, services, and social networks equates to the loss of knowledge. It doesn’t matter that many responses on Yahoo may lack accuracy or that many are mere jokes; a wealth of data exists that provides insight into human thought. Even errors can reveal fascinating aspects of how people think, reflecting educational standards, class distinctions, and cultural contexts.

To erase such an archive for reasons like a shift in focus or perceived unpopularity—or, as some speculate, due to abuse for spreading misinformation—illustrates that large tech companies are not committed to safeguarding our history and records.

Advocating for Preservation

The first step toward preserving this archive is to unite in urging Yahoo not to delete the content but to memorialize it instead. Converting the entire archive into static HTML and keeping it online would be a minimal expense for a corporation like Verizon, Yahoo’s parent company.

However, this issue transcends Yahoo Answers. We must consider broader initiatives like Archive.org, a nonprofit endeavor dedicated to creating a digital library of the internet. Such projects should receive increased support and funding to ensure that large archives, including Yahoo Answers, remain accessible. We cannot rely on Big Tech to preserve our collective memory.

We need to advocate collectively for large corporations to refrain from simply erasing content. Additionally, we must cultivate a movement of activists, users, universities, and other institutions to establish services capable of maintaining internet archives.

While we might not immediately miss the content, in the years to come, we will all gain from the preservation of these substantial knowledge archives.

The video titled "Ethical Hacking Training for Beginners | Edureka" explores essential skills in cybersecurity, emphasizing the importance of protecting digital information. As we reflect on the potential loss of platforms like Yahoo Answers, it becomes clear that securing our digital legacy is paramount for future understanding and research.

Raphael Tsavkko Garcia is a Brazilian journalist with a PhD in Human Rights from the University of Deusto. This is an opinion piece, reflecting the author's views.