Across every sector - government, culture, industry, academia, media, and community - digital materials are at-risk of extinction. On World Digital Preservation Day 2025, the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) has published a new version of the Global ‘Bit List’ of Endangered Digital Materials, which reveals the urgent need for coordinated action to prevent irreversible loss.
With tailormade messages for key sectors, the Bit List encourages the digital preservation community to push for that coordinated action, and for informed, long-term investment in digital preservation.
William Kilbride, Executive Director of the DPC says: “Digital preservation is not just a technical concern, it is a societal necessity. Whether protecting justice, enabling innovation or preserving identity, the loss of digital materials affects us all. The Bit List makes this much clear: digital preservation is not a hypothetical anxiety for the few. It is an imperative for us all.”
The Bit List identifies that without sustained investment in digital preservation we run the real risk of losing our cultural heritage. Community-generated content in arts and heritage, for example, are listed as Critically Endangered, and these digital expressions represent entire chapters of our shared history and creativity. Digital media too, including shut-down video games and always-online titles, are disappearing from platforms without preservation strategies. This strategy of planned obsolescence is erasing cultural memory and stifling creativity.
Furthermore, with non-standard public records already Practically Extinct and politically sensitive data Critically Endangered, the loss of these materials undermines government accountability, legal retention and public trust. And without robust preservation, the justice system is also under threat, with digital evidence and open-source intelligence (OSINT) used in investigations and court proceedings also facing critical endangerment.
With unpublished research data and legacy web collections at risk, research integrity is also threatened. Without these materials, reproducibility fails, delaying breakthroughs and wasting valuable public investment.
Meanwhile personal and community memories, such as family records and digital archives of community groups are also at risk of loss. Listed as Critically Endangered on the Bit List, content stored on social media or cloud platforms has become precariously vulnerable to deletion, especially for under-resourced communities and Indigenous groups.
Categorizing materials as Practically Extinct, Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable—based on expert insight and real-world conditions – the Bit List is a powerful call to action from the global digital preservation community, highlighting the digital content most at risk and the value of preserving it.
Explore the full Bit List and discover the recommendations for preserving at-risk digital materials at: https://www.dpconline.org/digipres/champion-digital-preservation/bit-list