404: Evidence Not Found - The Challenge of Disappearing Federal Data & Dark Archives

Speaker: Jason R. Baron, University of Maryland

Abstract: Over the past year and a half, thousands of federal web pages and datasets have been removed, altered, or made more difficult to access—part of what may fairly be characterized as a sustained assault on cultural, educational, scientific, and memory institutions. These actions, together with legal and policy initiatives that threaten to further restrict access to public records, are creating a new and consequential problem: government information is “going dark.” Meeting these challenges will require sustained engagement across disciplines and institutions, including private efforts to preserve vulnerable data, litigation to preserve and open records, and making progress on emerging AI initiatives that may offer new ways to make government data more accessible. The preservation of public information cannot be taken for granted; it increasingly depends on what researchers, archivists, lawyers, technologists, and an activist public choose to do now.

Bio: Jason R. Baron is a professor of the practice in the College of Information at the University of Maryland, focusing his teaching and research publications on the application of AI to improving records preservation and FOIA access policies in the federal government. During his 33 years in government service, he served as the first appointed director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration, and before that as a trial attorney and senior counsel in the Civil Division of the Justice Department. In those capacities, Baron acted as lead DOJ counsel on landmark lawsuits involving the preservation of White House email and played a leading role in improving federal electronic recordkeeping policies. Prior to his current faculty appointment, he served as Of Counsel in the e-discovery and information governance practice at Faegre Drinker LLP. Baron is a recipient of the Justice Tom C. Clark Outstanding Government Lawyer Award given by the Federal Bar Association, and the international Emmett Leahy Award, in recognition of achievements in records and information management. In connection with various recordkeeping controversies, Baron has been featured on multiple occasions on CNN, as well as on MSNBC, NBC News, Good Morning America, and on NPR’s 1A and All Things Considered. He has been quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Scientific American, and in dozens of other national and international media outlets. Baron received his B.A. magna cum laude with honors from Wesleyan University, and his J.D. from Boston University School of Law. He is a lifelong Red Sox fan.

This event is co-sponsored by the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, the School of Behavioral Sciences, the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, and the Commonwealth Honors College.