Simon WillisonFeb 5

The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions!

This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/the-world-factbook/

Spotlighting The World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell

Somewhat devastating news today from CIA: One of CIA’s oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications, The World Factbook, has sunset. There's not even a hint as to why they decided …

Simon Willison’s Weblog
Show threadbigjsl
@simon facts are the enemy of MAGA.
Feb 5 at 3:21amWeb
Show threadMab_813Feb 5

@bigjsl @simon

It's not like it contained facts only.
I remember reading, about my own country, that most Austrians are ethnically Germans, which is bullshit.

Show threadKaleissinFeb 5

@bigjsl @simon @Mab_813 So it was an excellent source/documentation of American bias/worldview/official reality then, which is useful.

That specific example might also be the old fallacy "speaks L, is L-ian". </linguist-hat>

Show threadM SchommerFeb 5
@simon @bigjsl
Context even more.