How the Internet Decides What to Forget

The perceived permanence of the internet is being challenged by the reality of digital fragility and the phenomenon known as link rot, where previously accessible web pages become unavailable over time.

According to reporting by The Irish Times and the Financial Times on April 8, 2026, a significant study of web pages revealed that more than a third of the pages available in 2013 are now inaccessible.

The Challenge of Digital Preservation

While some online content, such as embarrassing personal posts, often persists without the user’s consent, much of the broader web is susceptible to loss. This creates a tension between the desire to preserve cultural memory and the impracticality of archiving the vast amount of data generated daily.

The volume of digital content has made comprehensive preservation efforts difficult. A significant portion of current internet traffic consists of ephemeral or low-value content, such as AI-generated videos featuring cartoon fruit in Hawaiian shirts, which raises questions about what truly warrants long-term archival.

Institutional Shifts in Archiving

The difficulty of managing massive datasets is illustrated by the changing strategy of the Library of Congress regarding social media. In 2010, the library determined that Twitter was a critical source of modern history and began archiving every single tweet.

It “may prove to be one of this generation’s most significant legacies to future generations”

Library of Congress

By 2017, the Library of Congress shifted its approach, moving away from total archiving to saving only a few select posts. This change suggests that the original repository had become both uninteresting and unwieldy.

This shift highlights a core risk in digital curation: while saving everything is impractical due to the volume of nonsense, being selective increases the likelihood of missing important historical or cultural data.

The Fragility of the Web

The current state of internet preservation is described as a mishmash of individual efforts rather than a cohesive system. This lack of structure contributes to the fragility of the digital record.

The loss of data is not merely a technical failure but a reflection of the internet’s scale. As the web continues to expand, the process of deciding what to remember and what to forget becomes a central issue for the preservation of collective human memory.