Overview

More than two-thirds of Americans say the government should do everything it can to keep information out of terrorists’ hands, even if that means the public will be deprived of information it needs or wants. Similar percentages approve of officials’ steps to remove information from government Web sites that could be useful to terrorists. However, citizens are evenly divided on the question of whether the government should be able to monitor people’s email and online activities.

This report also contains the first scholarly studies built around analysis of hundreds of Web sites that have been cached in the September 11 Web Archives (http://september11.archive.org/). The report’s analysis of the Web sphere makes clear that no event in the Web era has so dominated so many Web sites in such a short, intense period of time. In a cross-sectional sample of Web sites produced by organizations and individuals: 63% provided information related to the attacks; 36% allowed visitors to provide some form of assistance to victims; and 26% allowed individuals to seek assistance from others and from relief organizations.