THE Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine is a digital storage of information on the internet.
The platform enables users to access archived versions of webpages with Wayback Machine which holds more than 866 billion archived webpages, dating back to 1996 while also allowing them to save webpages.
It allows you to view and compare changes between two iterations of a webpage, view old versions of webpages, view webpages that no longer exists.
The platform enables fact-checkers to access claims made in the past or published in news reports or deleted posts to back up their findings.
Steps
1. Visit the Wayback Machine Website: Go to the Wayback Machine website here: web.archive.org
2. Enter the URL: In the Wayback Machine’s search bar, enter the URL of the website or webpage you want to explore or view its historical versions.
3. Select a date: The Wayback Machine will show you a calendar with highlighted dates indicating when snapshots of the website were taken. Select a specific date to view the archived version from that time.
4. Explore archived pages: Once you select a date, you’ll be taken to a snapshot of the website as it appeared on that day. You can click on links within the archived page to navigate to other pages of the same date.
5. View different versions: You can use the navigation bar at the top to switch between different archived versions of the website.
The number of snapshots available may vary depending on the frequency with which the website was crawled.
Wayback Machine also has a feature that enables you to save the link of a social media or website post in such a way that it is accessible and usable for future reference even if the original post is deleted by the source. We make use of this feature to keep record of misleading posts. We also reference the archived links in our posts rather than the misleading links to avoid giving more visibility to false information.
All you need to do is to scroll down and go to the save page option, put the link inside the box, click save page and allow it to generate a new link. The new link is the archived version which can be used for referencing.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
So who gets to determine what are “misleading posts,” “misleading links,” and “false information?” Who determines that authority? The government? The media? Mark Zuckerberg?
The fact-checkers, using open source tools to analyse such information and determine its accuracy or otherwise based on publicly available evidence, among other universally-accepted methodologies.
We are also governed by the IFCN Code of Principles to maintain high ethical standard at all times.
waybackrestorer.com is more convenient and easy to use tool for restoring the website.