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 simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t…
reshared this
peter sibley
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Simon Willison
in reply to Simon Willison • • •They had a most excellent editorial voice, as demonstrated by this "what's new" entry from December 10th 2020 about the height of Mount Everest simonw.github.io/cia-world-fac…
millennial fulcrum
in reply to Simon Willison • • •sortius
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Ian Wagner
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Pseudo Nym
in reply to Simon Willison • • •2016 version made it into archive.org
Might be good to host the 2020 version and submit it there as well
archive.org/details/worldfactb…
KanaMauna
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Huntn00
in reply to Simon Willison • • •xs4me2
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Unbelievable…
Guess I will download it!
Em & future cats 🇺🇦🐈🏳️🌈
in reply to Simon Willison • • •It was about the “Alfombras” in Antigua Guatemala during Holy Week. 😿
Magical Cat
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Although dictators are being ousted not by factbooks but other means, but even just making dictators sad a bit is better than licking their boots.
Yuki "neige d'aout" Hazuki 膤 ❄️
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Aww, the CIA stopped being fun now
Was it updated past 2020? Probably not, huh?
Lightfighter
in reply to Simon Willison • • •stevenray
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Kevin Russell
in reply to Simon Willison • • •bigjsl
in reply to Simon Willison • • •bit
in reply to Simon Willison • • •I think I found a 2022 version in the archive.
archive.org/details/perma_cc_K…
☮ ♥ ♬ 🧑💻
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Peter Brown
in reply to Simon Willison • • •removing sources of information is entirely consistent with preferring an uneducated uninformed electorate. I believe it was Reagan‘s advisors that warned him that an educated electorate was a threat to their policies.
So now when the Dear Leader stands up to pontificate about other countries there is no CIA source available to contradict him.
The US is now a backward country with increasing levels of illiteracy and education becoming increasingly unattainable for most
paulwalk
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Petra van Cronenburg
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Thanks for saving data.
Renke Meuwese
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Kevin McMurphy 🤔
in reply to Simon Willison • • •gary
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Workshopshed
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Kathryn
in reply to Simon Willison • • •China.Gamer.Guy 神州电玩客
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Thank goodness for The Archive..
web.archive.org/web/2026020407…
Jason Bowen 🇺🇦
in reply to Simon Willison • • •"He who controls the present controls the past. He who controls the past controls the future."
So we're literally at 1984.
Unus Nemo
in reply to Simon Willison • •@Simon Willison
You can find plenty of other versions on Project Gutenberg They do not have 2020 yet, you could share it there.
edit: Never mind, I forked your repo, I can share it there 😉. Already have a localhost copy up on my rig.
Reg likes this.