2026/06/12 by Lili R. Romann, Lexi McNamara, Danielle Faipler +2 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Privacy, Security, and Data Protection #Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
paper · doi:10.1080/1369118x.2026.2686316
openalex publication_date 2026/06/12 · openalex created_date 2026/06/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26
Following an executive order signed by Donald Trump to prevent ‘woke ideology’ from permeating everyday American lives and institutions, the Department of Health and Human Services complied by removing a large amount of health-related information from government websites. These information pages and websites pertain to reproductive health, adolescent and LGBTQ + health, and HIV. In response, contributors to the subreddit r/DataHoarder collaboratively moved to archive and preserve as much of this health information as possible. Informed by psychological reactance theory (PRT), we examine how contributors to the r/DataHoarder subreddit (a) characterize the 2025 CDC Data Purge as a perceived threat to their freedom(s) and articulate motivations to regain such freedom(s), as well as (b) describe their efforts to archive data as a means of restoration. Employing reflexive thematic analysis, we identified four major themes: Defining the Data Purge: ‘A Modern book banning’; Act now! Motivation (or lack thereof) to archive CDC data; Restoration in the context of the 2025 CDC Data Purge; and Bounding the group: r/DataHoarder camaraderie. We conclude by discussing the significance of this politically-driven discourse in a mediated context, theoretical implications for PRT, and future avenues for research.