404 Media

2026-03-23 20:28:37

Judge Allows DOGE Deposition Videos Back Online

On Monday a judge said videos of recent depositions from DOGE members can be published online once again. The ruling is something of an about face for Judge Colleen McMahon, who originally ordered plaintiffs in the DOGE-related lawsuit “claw back” the videos they had published to YouTube. The videos were already massively viral at the time of that ruling, in part because they showed DOGE members Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh unable or unwilling to define DEI, admitting their use of ChatGPT to filter contracts to potentially axe based on words like “Black” and “homosexual” but not “white,” and were broadly one of the first times the public has directly heard from people inside DOGE.

“This decision validates our position that the publication of the videos, which document a process to destroy knowledge and access to vital public programs, was indeed in the public’s interest,” Joy Connolly, president of the American Council of Learned Societies, said in a statement shared with 404 Media. “We look forward to continuing the pursuit of justice in reclaiming government support for important humanities research, education, and sustainability initiatives.”

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Judge Allows DOGE Deposition Videos Back Online

^{Joseph Cox (404 Media)}

404 Media

2026-03-14 16:00:39

The Removed DOGE Deposition Videos Have Already Been Backed Up Across the Internet

The DOGE deposition videos a judge ordered removed from YouTube on Friday after they had gone massively viral have since been backed up across the internet, including as a torrent and to the Internet Archive.The videos included DOGE members unable or unwilling to define DEI; discussing how they used ChatGPT and terms such as “black” and “homosexual” to flag grants for termination but not “white” or “caucasian,” and acknowledgements that despite their aggressive cuts they failed to achieve the stated goal of lowering the government deficit.

The news shows the difficulty in trying to remove material from the internet, especially that which has a high public interest and has already been viewed likely millions of times. It’s also an example of the “Streisand Effect,” a phenomenon where trying to suppress information often results in the information spreading further.

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The Removed DOGE Deposition Videos Have Already Been Backed Up Across the Internet

^{Joseph Cox (404 Media)}

404 Media

2026-03-14 00:19:58

DOGE Deposition Videos Taken Down After Judge Order and Widespread Mockery

A judge on Friday ordered the immediate removal of a series of depositions of members of DOGE, but not before clips of the depositions, including one in which a member was largely unable to define DEI, went viral and were covered widely, including by 404 Media.

At the time of writing, the depositions are not available on YouTube, where the Modern Language Association had uploaded them. The MLA, American Council of Learned Societies, and American Historical Association, are suing the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and others around DOGE’s cuts of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of grants. Neither the plaintiffs nor the government immediately responded to a request for comment.

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DOGE Deposition Videos Taken Down After Judge Order and Widespread Mockery

The government asked a judge to stop the spread of the videos on YouTube. The judge agreed and ordered their immediate removal.

^{Joseph Cox (404 Media)}