FCC’s archived pages at archive.org redirect to the FCC. WTF? How is that possible? Looks like a new kind of enshitification that attacks our access to archives.

The FCC has not figured out how to properly secure their website, so they have bluntly made their website access-restricted to arbitrarily exclude whole demographics of people. They lack the competency to transparently state /who/ they are blocking and who they are allowing, but tests show they have certainly not figured out how to serve the Tor community.

Setting aside those embarrassing facts about a fed’s communication agency failing to communicate with people, we should in the very least be able to reach FCC content on archive.org (who demonstrates competency in handling Tor traffic). But when visiting a recent FCC page on archive.org, such as this, it redirects to fcc.gov! There are perhaps some malicious JavaScript shenanigans going on because an old page like this does not attempt to deny people access to archives.

Why the FCC wants to attack people’s access to archive.org is unclear. But the bottom line is archive.org is our refuge for copious forms of enshitification. So when a kind of enshitification directly attacks ppls access to archive.org, it needs a spotlight.

(update) Legally speaking, isn’t it the FCC who we would expect to take enforcement action against a denial of service attack like this? What’s the recourse when the FCC /is/ the attacker?

Legal thread here.