The FBI has launched an investigation into Archive.is, the popular archiving website used to get around paywalls and avoid sending traffic to websites like X. This per 404 Media, which reports that the FBI is investigating who owns the website, though it has yet to clarify any specific criminal activity. The FBI has sent a subpoena to the Canadian domain registrar, Tucows, in an effort to collect information about the site and eventually unmask its owner.
The Archive.is posted the subpoena on its X account, its first post in more than a year. According to the subpoena, the FBI requires Tucows to submit specific information related to a federal criminal investigation. That information includes the customer or subscriber’s name, billing address, length of service, payment method, and telephone communications. “YOUR COMPANY IS REQUIRED TO FURNISH THIS INFORMATION,” the subpoena states. “YOU ARE REQUESTED NOT TO DISCLOSE THE EXISTENCE OF THIS SUBPOENA INDEFINITELY AS ANY SUCH DISCLOSURE COULD INTERFERE WITH AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW.” A spokesperson for Tucows told 404 that it would comply with the investigation when “served with valid due process.” However, it is “unable to or share any further information, especially regarding potential ongoing or active investigations.”
The website came to prominence, like so much of our digital hellscape, through GamerGate, with people using the site to track changes to articles and avoid sending traffic to the websites that published them. Since then, it has become a tool for bypassing paywalls as well as for documenting changes to websites. Tracking those changes has become increasingly important as the Trump administration has removed or modified more than 8,000 government websites in its attempt to erase the great American scourge of diversity initiatives. It’s a problem so widespread that it has its own Wikipedia article. In other news, the White House is also going after Wikipedia for so-called liberal bias.
