Social Media Reacts to MTV News Website Going Dark and Vanishing Archives

MTV just pulled the plug on its MTV News website, taking down two decades of content.

Now, if you try to access MTV News articles on mtvnews.com or mtv.com/news, you’re sent straight to the main MTV site.

Thousands of articles and interviews with major artists, dating back to 1996, are gone.

Including its biggest loss of its epic hip-hop archives, especially the “Mixtape Monday” column from the 2000s and 2010s, which featured interviews and reviews with artists and producers early in their careers.

Social media is buzzing with upset fans and former MTV News staffers. Everyone’s feeling the loss of a massive piece of music history. Tweets and posts are full of disappointment and nostalgia for the articles that captured iconic moments in music and pop culture.

Some hope the Wayback Machine might have saved MTV News articles, but older pieces aren’t showing up there either.

For now, the shutdown leaves a huge gap in the history of music journalism. Let’s hope some of this valuable content finds its way back online someday.

How much would it cost to put it back up? I’m so serious. There has to be somebody who can afford to maintain MTV News. Or a way to crowd fund to do so 😕😕😕

— ladidai (@ladidaix) 🤠 peep lincolnbio (@ladidaix) June 24, 2024

MTV News' writers deserved better than to have their work disappear. So did the readers and researchers who would benefit from this work being available. Music journalism erasure is a loss for the cultures we cover. What remains, and where it has pivoted, cannot make up for that.

— I’m Gary (@imgarysuarez) June 25, 2024

it's morally unconscionable. blame congress. digital archival and the public search thereof as a human right.

— warrbo (@warrbo) June 25, 2024

This is disgraceful. They've completely wiped the MTV News archive. Decades of pop culture history research material gone, and why? https://t.co/xJQRXrNERS

— Brian Hiatt (@hiattb) June 24, 2024

Wiping a news brand and its full archive from existence is deleting historical records, with MTV News that’s decades of music & youth culture history. A huge loss to society, future research and devastatingly cruel to journalists who suddenly have no record of all their hard work

— Jillian Sederholm (@JillianSed) June 25, 2024

I really hope that the MTVNEWS archives come back so that people can at least save their work and somebody can archive it on another website because that is still blowing my mind even hours later

— ⚜️Sovereign⚜️ (@sauvamemte) June 25, 2024

sickening (derogatory) to see the entire @mtvnews archive wiped from the internet. decades of music history gone…including some very early k-pop stories.

— Crystal Bell (@crystalbell) June 24, 2024

MTV News literally has all of that capsuled footage and interviews

— daij (@JumpsForJoyy) June 24, 2024

This MTV News archive is making me think of streaming services and whether all these shows and movies will disappear into the ether when streaming dies. What happens to the pop culture archives when climate change or political issues or tech conglomerates change again?

— Dr. Unicorn the Indefatigable (@DrAriaHalliday) June 24, 2024

I cannot begin to tell you how upsetting this is. Years of good music journalism just wiped away. Every journalist who ever worked there deserves better than this. I didn't even think to archive the article I wrote for MTV News. https://t.co/KXIWneDafU

— Natasha S.C Mulenga🇿🇲🇬🇧 (@SampaTasha) June 24, 2024

I still can’t believe the MTV News archives are gone. I literally tried to fact-check with one of their articles today and that’s how I found out the site got wiped. We lose so much when crucial cultural reporting is lost to the internet abyss and the powers that be.

— IAMNJERA (@IAMNJERA) June 25, 2024

WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR WIPING MTV NEWS ARCHIVES!!?!??! that's fucking wack as fuck!

— GeniusJulius (@juliusstukesjr) June 25, 2024

MTV NEWS being deleted is literally a new age burning of the musical and pop culture Library of Alexandria. And for what? For Viacom to save a couple schmeckles, capitalism is a scourge on society

— Sterlz (@IAm_Sterling) June 25, 2024