The internet was created in America. But is it safe in America? Some people don’t think so.
A nonprofit group based in San Francisco has decided to “Trump-proof” its massive open-for-all internet library by storing it in Canada as well as the United States.
The group, the Internet Archive, which claims to save some 300 million webpages every week, said in a blog post that storing a copy of its vast digital assets in another country is a step toward “preparing for a Web that may face greater restrictions.”
It did not mention President-elect Donald Trump by name but noted that government surveillance and “terrible violations of privacy” have brought down libraries in the past.
“On Nov. 9th in America, we woke up to a new administration promising radical change. It was a firm reminder that institutions like ours, built for the long-term, need to design for change,” says the blog post by the group’s founder, Brewster Kahle.
Installing an off-site backup for data is a common strategy for companies, but this appears to be the first time that a major internet virtual utility has migrated assets out of the United States for fear of perceived domestic risk.