FiveThirtyEight's archived website has disappeared from the internet, redirecting users to ABC News and making thousands of articles dating back to 2008 inaccessible. The data journalism site, founded by Nate Silver, specialized in polling analysis and election modeling before ABC shut down operations in March 2025.

Former senior editor Nathaniel Rakich first flagged the issue on social media, estimating roughly 3,500 of Silver's articles vanished along with approximately 700 of his own pieces. Silver attempted to purchase the intellectual property rights from ABC, which owns the site through its Disney parent company, but was rebuffed.

G. Elliott Morris, who led FiveThirtyEight after Silver's 2023 departure, called the decision a "foolish business decision" given digital media's current struggles. The archive's loss represents more than broken links—it erases a decade of influential political analysis and interactive data projects that shaped modern journalism.

Former staff describe the disappearance as "gutting" for their professional portfolios and the industry's historical record. Galen Druke noted lost interactive projects on gerrymandering and gun violence that had been incorporated into university curricula. The incident highlights risks when corporate owners abandon valuable digital archives.