The Memory Hole was a

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...

edited by

Russ Kick Russell Charles Kick III (July 20, 1969September 12, 2021) was an American writer, editor, and publisher. Russell Charles Kick III was born on July 20, 1969, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Early in his career, Kick wrote articles, a column, and a cover ...

; it was launched on July 10, 2002, with its last post on May 11, 2009, with a successor website appearing in June 2016. Before being hacked in June 2009, the site was devoted to preserving and publishing material that is in danger of being lost, hard to find, or not widely known. Topics include government files, corporate memos, court documents, police reports and eyewitness statements, Congressional testimony, reports from various sources, maps, patents, web pages, photographs, video, sound recordings, news articles, and books. The name is a tribute to the "

memory hole A memory hole is any mechanism for the deliberate alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts or other records, such as from a website or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to giv ...

" from George Orwell's novel ''

Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and fina ...

'', a slot into which government officials deposit politically inconvenient documents and records for destruction. One of the most noticeable actions was the publication of several hundred photos depicting the coffins of U.S. soldiers fallen in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. These were obtained by Kick by filing a request based on the

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

. The photos sparked a controversy regarding the publication of war photos, public opinion and the behavior of the U.S. government. The website is the 2005 winner of the

Project on Government Oversight The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, that investigates and works to expose waste, fraud, abuse, and conflicts of interest in the U.S. federal government. According to its webs ...

's "Beyond the Headlines" Award. A successor website, The Memory Hole 2, was launched by Kick on June 16, 2016.

Notes

External links

http://thememoryhole.org/ - Freedom of Information (FOIA) Web Archive

The Memory Hole

The Memory Hole - Internet Archive

The Memory Hole 2

2007 establishments in Sweden Classified documents Information sensitivity Internet censorship Internet properties established in 2002 National security Online archives of the United States Whistleblowing {{website-stub

See also

Notes

External links