[Kim_Bruning]

> and no one will lose an election because they failed to act to save it.

At the very least in a just world, I think the ability to reference historical data from the web probably would influence some elections.

In the unjust world we actually live in, access to historical data can be used as a tool (or weapon!) by journalists, pacs, candidates, etc. to find strengths and weaknesses, and to influence elections.

"back in 2026, the candidate enacted XYZ, as proven by [1][2][3] (all ia links). Ten years later this ended in <great victory|terrible disaster> therefore you <should|shouldn't> vote for them"

... Also, eg. Wikipedia often uses IA links for references to deal with link rot, which happens a lot more than you'd think. I won't say WP would shut down completely, but it's effectiveness would definitely be degraded.

Same probably for a lot of professions and jobs that require research. (including eg. secretaries, special librarians, political assistants, etc...)

Just because you personally can't imagine the impact on society, doesn't mean it doesn't have an impact on society.

[Dalewyn]

I agree with tablespoon that the demise of IA would not even be a footnote for the commons. So what if an archive of the internet goes away? Most people aren't going to care, and that's the brutal and apathetic reality.

[Kim_Bruning]

I agree that many people might not directly care if IA goes away. But obviously the destruction of such a large amount of knowledge would not be without consequences (including to courts themselves)