The Internet Archive has created a repository dedicated to Donald Trump. The Trump Archive is designed to be a public record of the views the next President of the United States of America has expressed in recent years. Allowing us all to become fact-checkers.
For the uninitiated, the Internet Archive is an online repository of books, movies, music, and games. The Wayback Machine, probably the best known element of the Internet Archive, charts changes to billions of website and web pages. Including your very own MakeUseOf.
The Trump Archive contains more than 520 hours of Trump-related videos. This includes speeches, interviews, debates, and other televised broadcasts concerning the president. The earliest video dates back to December 2009, when Trump started expressing views relevant to his presidency.
Fact-Checking President Trump
As well as the unedited footage of Donald Trump on TV, the Trump Archive also includes "500 video statements fact checked by FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, and The Washington Post’s Fact Checker". Subjects being fact-checked include Donald Trump's tax returns and Hillary Clinton's emails.
The Internet Archive can only do so much on its own though. So members of the public are invited to use clips in articles and videos, create supercuts on certain topics, and suggest content that is currently missing from the Trump Archive. All videos are "searchable, quotable, and shareable on social media".
Keeping an Eye on Public Officials
In its blog post announcing the Trump Archive, the Internet Archive suggests this is just the start of its efforts to keep an eye on politicians and public servants. Essentially, this is an "experimental model" which could be duplicated for everyone from "members of Congress of both parties" to "Supreme Court nominees".
Despite these assurances, people are bound to feel this is politically motivated. Because, let's face it, the Internet Archive didn't do this when Barack Obama entered office in 2009. Then again, we assume Hillary Clinton would have been subjected to the same level of scrutiny had she beaten Donald Trump to the presidency in November 2016.
What do you think of the Trump Archive? Will you be using it to track how Donald Trump's views have changed over the years? Should the Internet Archive apply the same level of scrutiny to other politicians and public officials? Please let us know in the comments below!
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr