Trump admin has viral DOGE videos taken down. Archivists have already re-uploaded them.

Last week, viral videos of two former staffers of the Elon Musk-led government agency DOGE went viral. The videos offered a rare look behind the scenes about how DOGE was managed and how federal funding cuts were determined.

On Friday, a federal judge ordered videos are deleted after a complaint from the Trump administration.

However, much to the dismay of the US government, Internet archivists and forums like Reddit’s r/datahoarders have already re-downloaded saves videos.

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the American Historical Association (AHA), and the Modern Language Association (MLA) initially hosted hours-long depositions from two former DOGE employees, Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh. Fox and Cavanaugh were impeached following a lawsuit filed by the three organizations over DOGE budget cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

The depositions of the two DOGE employees quickly went viral. Fox’s interview gained particular traction after clips emerged showing his failure to explain exactly what DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) was, regardless of whether DEI was his reasoning for cutting funding to specific projects or groups. DOGE staff explained how programs were flagged for discounts if they were labeled with terms like “Black” or “LGBTQ+,” but terms like “Caucasian” or “heterosexual” were not flagged. Other clips showed how DOGE employees used ChatGPT to determine which programs to remove.

According to the Trump administration, online mockery of former DOGE members puts them in real, offline danger. The government told the judge that Fox had specifically been the subject of harassment and even death threats.

Following this request, Judge Colleen McMahon ordered that the ACLS, AHA and MLA “take all possible steps to recover” the DOGE deposition videos from the Internet.

The ACLS, AHA, and MLA argued that this was a First Amendment issue and that the videos were in the public interest because they involved “testimony by high-ranking government officials on matters of great public interest.”

The judge denied their request and sent the case back to a hearing Tuesday. Fox and Cavanaugh’s hours-long depositions were suppressed shortly afterward on Friday.

However, despite the judge’s order, little could be done to remove the numerous viral clips of the deposition that had been uploaded to social media.

Additionally, Internet archivists and self-proclaimed data collectors had already extracted the entirety of both videos before they were removed from YouTube. Since their deletion, the two full depositions have already been put back online on sites such as Internet Archive. The subreddit r/data accumulators has also provided torrents of both videos, so that anyone who wishes can also download the depositions locally on their own computer.

Whatever the judge decides at the hearing, it seems clear that the Internet has delivered its verdict. These deposition videos from two DOGE staff members will still be available online in some form.