Looking for “Wikileaks”?

Can you search for “Wikileaks” on the National Archives web site? Yes and no.

On Saturday morning, November 3, we learned via Twitter that a search for “Wikileaks” on the National Archives web site archives.gov brought up an error notice stating that the URL was banned. However, even at the same time, a search for “Wiki leaks” in the same search box generated five or six search results.

The banned URL message was an error. We alerted our IT team first thing Monday morning, November 5, and the erroneous blocking rule that produced the error was removed. A search for the term “wikileaks” now generates over two dozen results.

However, while you can now search for both the terms “Wikileaks” and “Wiki leaks” on archives.gov, you will not find the Wikileaks documents. Wikileaks documents remain classified and are not in National Archives custody.

The National Archives holds only permanently archived records, entrusted to us by Federal agencies. Records that are publicly available in the National Archives research facilities nationwide and on archives.gov are no longer classified (or classified parts have been redacted). Each record in our search engines has been reviewed by our archivists before being digitized and posted online.

The National Archives promotes openness, transparency, participation, and collaboration. We appreciate this error being brought to our attention. We value public feedback and continue to explore additional ways of communicating with the public both online and in person at National Archives facilities nationwide and online. For a full list of National Archives social media tools, see www.archives.gov/social-media/. For a list of National Archives locations see http://www.archives.gov/locations/.

Where this page came from

This page was imported from National Archives, Pieces of History. Published on the National Archives' Pieces of History blog and, as a work of the United States government, in the public domain; pictures credited elsewhere are left out.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.