Spain Blocks Archive.today; Citizens Trying to Read a Dead Web Page Now Shown a Live Government Page Accusing Them of a Crime
The block was ordered by a commission, without a court, using a protocol built for speed, three things the page also accuses the user of.
MADRID — Spanish internet users attempting to read an archived copy of a web page are now redirected to a page operated by the Ministry of Culture informing them, in capital letters, that they are trying to access an illegal website, that they are "contributing to an illegal and criminal activity," and that they are putting their own data and devices at risk, a level of concern the ministry had previously reserved for Saturday afternoons during the football season.
The block on Archive.today and its mirrors was ordered by the Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission, which requires a complaint but not a court.
"Archiving a page is a form of access. Access is a form of facilitation," said a ministry spokesperson. "We are a ministry of culture. We know what words mean."
"I went to check what a newspaper said in 2014," said Ignacio Beltran, a librarian in Zaragoza. "I was told I was a criminal. In 2014 the newspaper said the same thing about a different government. I would like to read it again, but that is the crime."
The commission did not specify which content the archive was infringing. A person familiar with the order said the block was carried out under the same rapid protocol used to take down infrastructure during La Liga matches, "which has taken down half the internet on match days and has not yet taken down a single match."
Users who reach the warning page are not told how to appeal, a decision the spokesperson described as "in keeping with the page."
Archive.today did not respond to a request for comment, and could not be reached at any of its mirrors from inside the country.
At press time, the government's warning page had been archived.