On February 4, 2026, the CIA posted on their website “Spotlighting the World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell.” The short story lauded the World Factbook as “[o]ne of CIA’s oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications” and said it “appealed to researchers, news organizations, teachers, students, and international travelers.”[1] Nothing in the story explained why the CIA was ending the publication, nor did it explain why the CIA removed all entries from the Factbook’s website. A former government intelligence officer, speaking to the New York Times about the end of the Factbook, stated that “[t]he intelligence community shouldn’t be your librarian” and recognized that when the Factbook was first developed “there was no such thing as the internet.” They then stated “[n]ow it’s like, what’s the point?”. Though the internet has expanded access to the type of information compiled in the Factbook, it is (or sadly was) still relevant as a free source of information about other countries and demonstrated positive U.S. engagement with the rest of the world. The ending and removal of the CIA Factbook is a continuation of the current administration’s attacks on information access[2] as well as the administration’s transformation of U.S. foreign engagement.
In February 2025, Clay Calvert wrote about the president as an “information gatekeeper,” stating “Trump’s strategy is transparent: control access, control the narrative.”[3] Information is a resource; it has social, economic, and political values. Controlling access to information is a means of exerting power. We see this on a large scale from governments imposing internet blackouts or through incremental and piecemeal information removal like what is happening in the United States. Sometimes these incremental and piecemeal removals are significant in scope or may be the removal of a single publication, like the CIA World Factbook. Ultimately, access to information is essential to knowledge production and knowledge production and dissemination of information are necessary in a functioning society. In the U.S., knowledge production and information dissemination are essential to sustain an informed democratic society. Attacks on information access are attacks on the public’s ability to make informed decisions and understand domestic, international, and foreign policy.
In addition to attacks on information access, the current administration is also transforming the United States relationship to the global community. Many scholars and commentators are examining the changing role of the United States in the global community and what it means for the future of international law.[4] The administration seems to be trying to push the international legal order from one of an idealized international law of equality[5] to an international law of authoritarian oligarchs, with no pretense of striving for equality or democratization. The “America First” ethos propelling this version of international law in the United States doesn’t need to share information about the world with its citizens and therefore the CIA World Factbook is not an essential resource. But it is an essential resource for an educated, informed democracy. Removing it and other information from free public access is anti-democratic.
The CIA story about the end of the World Factbook, links to a 2020 story that praises the Factbook as “a resource used by presidents, by warfighters, and by the world’s greatest scholars. It is used in times of crisis, in times of uncertainly, in times of peace, and in times of war. It is an authoritative source of basic intelligence that has and will continue to be an essential part of CIA’s legacy.” On February 4, 2026, this “essential part” of the U.S. and the CIA’s legacy ended. And as we enter a time of war and crisis and uncertainty, we need this information and opportunity to engage with the world now more than ever.
Resources for Finding Archived Versions of the CIA World Factbook and Similar Information
- Internet Archive Wayback Machine, CIA World Factbook Archives
- Digital Public Goods Library, CIA World Factbook
- Online Books Page, The World Factbook
- Open Source Intelligence, Factbook Archive, CIA World Factbook
- European Union, Eurostat
- OECD, Data
- Michigan State University, globalEDGE
- World Bank, Open Data
[1] For a glimpse into how teachers feel about the CIA World Factbook being removed look at reddit: “Where to Get Accurate Info Now That CIA World Factbook is Defunct?”, Kidmodo-Dragon, reddit (r/geography), https://www.reddit.com/r/geography/comments/1qx2a47/where_to_get_accurate_info_now_that_cia_world/; “Factbook has been taken down,” uller999, reddit (r/Teachers), https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/1qw1m4e/factbook_has_been_taken_down/
[2] In early 2025, I wrote about the access to information crisis created by the current administration on this blog. The Access to Information Crisis, RIPS Law Librarian Blog (Mar. 12, 2025), https://ripslawlibrarian.wordpress.com/2025/03/12/the-access-to-information-crisis/; Finding the Unfindable in an Access to Information Crisis, RIPS Law Librarian Blog (Apr. 16, 2025), https://ripslawlibrarian.wordpress.com/2025/04/16/finding-the-unfindable-in-an-access-to-information-crisis/.
[3] Clay Calvert, Trump as Information Gatekeeper: Controlling Access, Controlling Narratives, AEIdeas (Feb. 25, 2025), https://www.aei.org/technology-and-innovation/trump-as-information-gatekeeper-controlling-access-controlling-narratives/
[4] Here are just a few: Monica Hakimi & Jacob Katz Cogan, The End of the U.S.-Backed International Order and the Future of International Law, 119 Am. J. Int’l L. 279 (2025), doi:10.1017/ajil.2025.9; Robert O. Keohane & Joseph S. Nye, Jr., The End of the Long American Century, Foreign Affs. (June 2, 2025), https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/end-long-american-century-trump-keohane-nye; Rebecca Lissner & Mira Rapp-Hooper, Absent at Creation?: American Strategy and the Delusion of a Post-Trump Restoration, Foreign Affs. 108 (2025), https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/absent-creation-rebecca-lissner; Nilanthan Niruthan, Requiem for IHL: A Geopolitical Perspective, Articles of War (July 30, 2025), https://lieber.westpoint.edu/requiem-ihl-geopolitical-perspective/; Markus Gehring & Tejas Rao, International Law Under Pressure, Verfassungsblog (Mar. 24, 2025), https://verfassungsblog.de/international-law-violations-trump-administration/; Hylke Dijkstra, Second Attempt at America First: Donald Trump and the Survival of International Organizations, 2025 Glob. Pol’y 1, https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.70107; Heike Krieger & Andrea Liese, The Twofold Relevance of International Law in Transitional Orders, 6 Glob. Stud. Q. ksaf120 (2026).
[5] Equalization is used here as the ideal vision hoped for by some in the post-World War II era, not the reality of inequalities created and sustained by leading industrialized powers.
Editor’s Note – This article is republished with author’s permission, with first publication on RIPS Law Librarian Blog.
See Also Open Fact Book – Successor to World Fact Book – Follow up to CIA ends publication of its popular World Factbook reference tool – See The World Factbook is now the OpenFactBook – “The community-maintained successor to the CIA World Factbook. Comprehensive data on 254 countries and territories. OpenFactBook provides free, comprehensive, and accurate information about every country in the world. We believe geographic and demographic data should be accessible to everyone—students, researchers, journalists, developers, and curious minds alike.”