A disturbing pattern of digital erasure is sweeping across India’s media landscape, where years of investigative journalism critical of the government is vanishing from online archives. Reporters, particularly those covering sensitive areas like Kashmir, are stunned to find their most critical stories on surveillance, military misconduct, and civil unrest replaced by 404 errors. Experts call this “404 journalism”—a systemic “digital vanishing act” executed by media outlets themselves due to immense political pressure. Notable casualties include the Hindustan Times’ Hate Tracker and entire archives of regional papers. This trend has created a severe chilling effect, with journalists now proactively requesting takedowns of their own work, fearing their past reporting could be used against them in legal cases or affect personal liberties, ultimately erasing the rough draft of history and undermining public accountability.

When history becomes subject to political pressure, how can journalists and digital preservationists collaborate to secure an immutable public archive of critical reporting outside the jurisdiction of corporate and government censorship?