Are you a believer in the idea that once something is published on the Internet, it’s published forever? Well, today we’re going to dispel that myth.
The truth is that in many cases it’s quite possible to eradicate information from the Internet. Sure, there’s a record of web pages that have been deleted if you search the Wayback Machine, right? Yup, absolutely. On the Wayback Machine there are records of web pages going back many years — pages that you won’t find with a Google search because the web page no longer exists. Someone deleted it, or the website got shut down.
So, there’s no getting around it, right? Information will forever be engraved into the stone of the Internet, there for generations to see? Well, not exactly.
The truth is that while it might be difficult or impossible to wipe out major news stories that have proliferated from one news website or blog to another like a virus, it is actually quite easy to completely eradicate a web page or several web pages from all records of existence — to remove that page for both search engines as well as the Wayback Machine. There is a catch of course, but we’ll get to that.
The truth is that in many cases it’s quite possible to eradicate information from the Internet. Sure, there’s a record of web pages that have been deleted if you search the Wayback Machine, right? Yup, absolutely. On the Wayback Machine there are records of web pages going back many years — pages that you won’t find with a Google search because the web page no longer exists. Someone deleted it, or the website got shut down.
So, there’s no getting around it, right? Information will forever be engraved into the stone of the Internet, there for generations to see? Well, not exactly.
The truth is that while it might be difficult or impossible to wipe out major news stories that have proliferated from one news website or blog to another like a virus, it is actually quite easy to completely eradicate a web page or several web pages from all records of existence — to remove that page for both search engines as well as the Wayback Machine. There is a catch of course, but we’ll get to that.
