CIA ends World Factbook access; educators and researchers mourn loss

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The CIA World Factbook, a long-running reference guide compiled for public use by the agency, stopped being available after the Trump administration ended it on Feb. 4, an Associated Press report said. The change has raised questions among educators and researchers who have relied on the Factbook in classrooms, libraries and research for decades.

The AP report said the CIA framed the move as progress for an agency whose central mission has shifted. As part of the agency’s wrap-up message, the CIA advised users to “Permanezcan curiosos,” which the Associated Press characterized as a “cariñosa despedida” — a kind goodbye.

AP traced the Factbook’s public-facing role to its stated purpose of sharing factual information broadly. The report also said the CIA’s pages previously included a statement about sharing “estos hechos” with people of all nations, describing the agency’s view that “el conocimiento de la verdad sustenta el funcionamiento de las sociedades libres.”

The AP account described the Factbook’s origins as tied to U.S. intelligence planning after Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. It said that by 1947 the task of compiling basic intelligence about other countries was assigned to the CIA, and that the Factbook in its unclassified, public form was opened to the public four years after it became publicly available in 1971.

The report added that the Factbook later became a tool for students and also carried geopolitical weight, including how being included could confer legitimacy for nations or opposition parties. It also placed the Factbook’s public release in the context of congressional scrutiny of U.S. intelligence agencies in the mid-1970s, including investigations described by AP as involving the CIA and other agencies.

According to AP, some international media highlighted the Factbook’s end beyond U.S. classrooms, and social media users circulated archived copies while seeking alternative “impartial” sources. The report cited Isabel Altamirano, an assistant professor and chemistry librarian at Auburn University in Alabama, who said that the information still exists but would be “more difficult to find” after the CIA removed the Factbook.

AP said Altamirano described the convenience of having the Factbook in “one place,” and she said that after learning of the change on Feb. 4, she removed it from a list of class resources for her students in a business communication course. The AP report also included an academic critique from Binoy Kampmark of Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, who wrote in an email that lamenting the Factbook’s end would be “equivocado,” while saying that the compilers “are not, ni puede esperarse que sean, neutrales.”

AP noted that the Factbook’s last publication date at the time of the removal appeared outdated in archived material, including a reference to Iran’s supreme leader still being listed as Ayatollah Ali Jamenei. The report said Jamenei died on March 1 following U.S. and Israeli attacks, and described the change as leaving the world without the Factbook as a record.