2025 United States government online resource removals
Following executive orders from President Donald Trump's administration, government organizations removed or modified over 8,000 web pages and approximately 3,000 datasets.
The changes primarily affected content related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, gender identity, public health research, environmental policy, and various social programs.
While some content was later restored, the modifications represented significant changes to federal government data accessibility and sparked legal challenges from healthcare advocacy groups.
[4] In 2009, Data.gov was established to improve public access to high value, machine-readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.
[7][8][9] The organizations were told to terminate any programs and remove any outward facing media, documents, materials, communications, and statements that promote "gender ideology" by January 31.
[9][10] Agencies also moved quickly to comply with the executive order "Ending Radical Government DEI Programs" by removing forbidden terms from their websites.
[3] This included thousands of research papers relating to chronic medical conditions, sexually transmitted infections, Alzheimer's disease, drug overdose prevention, adolescent health, and reproductive care.
"[15] Some data was restored later, such as the Atlas Tool for tracking infectious diseases such as HIV and STIs and information on the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.
[3] The environmental justice mapping and screening tool, EJScreen, was removed from the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) on February 5, along several related pages.
[3] The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, which tracked federal police officer misconduct, was removed as of February 20.
[20] Head Start, a U.S. federal aid program for low-income childcare, had over 200 pages removed as of February 2, including advice on establishing familial routines and guidance to help prevent postpartum depression.
[3] The Health Resources and Services Administration deleted 18 pages from their website as of February 2, including information on the Mpox vaccine and opioid addiction among women.
[23] On February 13, Garey Rice, the principal deputy assistant secretary for operations at HHS, declared that DOGE employees grafted to the agency have “full access to all unclassified agency records and software and IT systems” and are tasked, among other things, with the obligation to “destroy or erase copied HHS data or information when no longer needed for official purposes.”[24] The Internal Revenue Service removed more than 25 pages as of February 2, including a form that private schools are required to submit annually to certify that they had not engaged in racial discrimination.
As of February 2, there were 18 pages removed from the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, including information about veteran inventors and entrepreneurs, and a high school program teaching about intellectual property.
"[17] In response, a federal judge issued a restraining order on February 11, 2025, requiring certain websites from the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC, and the FDA to be restored.
[33][34] American Federation of Teachers and Minority Veterans of America and Public Citizen Litigation Group also filed lawsuits.
[36] President of the APDU, Amy O'Hara, described a "mad scramble" as researchers searched for copies of the deleted data.
[42] Head of American Public Health Association, George Benjamin, said that the removals could make it more difficult to track infectious diseases, such as HIV and Mpox.
