US EditionCIA Takes World Factbook Offline After Decades as Public Reference
The agency said the move reflects a modernization push, while educators warned the loss will make a one-stop research tool harder to find.
- On Feb. 4, the Trump administration abruptly shuttered the CIA World Factbook, ending a reference source that served researchers and students for more than six decades.
- The Cold War created an urgent need for centralized intelligence, prompting The CIA to develop the Factbook in 1971 and release it publicly four years later to rehabilitate its brand.
- In 1975, the Factbook's public release coincided with Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, holding more than 100 hearings investigating widespread abuse by The CIA, IRS, FBI, and National Security Agency.
- Isabel Altamirano, chemistry librarian assistant professor at Auburn University in Alabama, noted the closure removes a convenient, centralized resource; she removed the Factbook from her student class list.
- The final edition remains outdated, still listing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as head of government Under Iran despite his reported death in March, while analysts argue the publication was never truly neutral.
17 Articles
17 Articles
CIA World Factbook, trusted source of knowledge about nations, shuttered by Trump administration
If you attended school any time after the Nixon administration, you likely beheld at some point the CIA World Factbook, a map and reference manual of Planet Earth and its inhabitants nearly everyone could agree on. Maybe you read parts of it from a floppy disk or a CD-ROM for that social studies project due tomorrow. Or scanned its list of countries for Latvia, because that’s the country you’re representing next week in Model U.N. Even better, y…
Eulogy for the CIA Factbook: The free standard for world facts is gone
If you attended school any time after the Nixon administration, then you likely beheld at some point the CIA World Factbook, a map and reference manual of Planet Earth and its inhabitants upon which nearly everyone could agree. Maybe you read parts of it from a floppy disk or a CD-ROM for that social studies project due tomorrow. Or scanned its list of countries for Latvia, because that is the country you are representing next week in Model U.N.…
Eulogy for the CIA Factbook, the now-kaput free standard for world facts
If you attended school any time after the Nixon administration, then you likely beheld at some point the CIA World Factbook, a map and reference manual of Earth and its inhabitants upon which nearly everyone could agree.
Associated Press News
Eulogy for the CIA Factbook: The free standard for world facts, long an educational staple, is gone
The Trump administration has shut down the CIA World Factbook, and there's much lamenting about the demise of a free source that many people used to check basic facts about countries.
Eulogy for CIA Factbook: The free standard for world facts, long an educational staple, is gone
The Trump administration has shut down the CIA World Factbook, and there's much lamenting about the demise of a free source that many people used to check basic facts about countries. The end came on Feb. 4 in a “fond…
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Bias Distribution
- 56% of the sources lean Left
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