What should I do if the website disappears?¶

Preserve the state now visible and treat the disappearance as a dated event. Removal from public view does not mean that provider, device or third-party evidence has vanished.

Record what replaced the page¶

Capture the full URL, date, time, time zone, DNS result, error message, redirect or replacement content. A domain that no longer resolves, a server error and a redirect to another site describe different events.

Then reconstruct the earlier state through existing screenshots, downloads, archives, previews, browser history, cached material, messages and local files. Platform revisions, deleted-content records, hosting backups and provider configuration may explain what changed and which account caused it.

Think of a closed shop: the empty premises are new evidence, while receipts, CCTV, stock records and the landlord may still reconstruct earlier activity.

Build a timeline containing the last confirmed appearance, first confirmed absence and any account, DNS or hosting changes between them. Do not assume deliberate deletion; expiry, suspension, migration, technical failure and compromise may produce the same public result.

Preservation may be time-sensitive because deleted content and access logs can have short retention.