Nearly 400 videos that were posted on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s YouTube page have been removed, as the Trump administration continues to pare back the agency, including its team of skilled technologists.
The CFPB YouTube page, which has 15,000 subscribers and was created in 2011, has had every one of its videos removed as of Friday. An archived version of the page shows that as recently as February 8th, it hosted 386 videos. The archived page shows videos with titles like “Five tips for when you can’t pay your bills,” “How do I dispute an error on my credit report?” and “How can I improve my credit scores?”
Facebook and X accounts for the agency have also been taken down, although it’s unclear when. The homepage of the CFPB website delivers a 404 error message, though other pages on the site are still active.
The removals seem to be part of a larger dismantling of the agency, which oversees consumer protection issues in financial service. That’s an area that’s increasingly come to include tech players, including X; X is owned by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk, who’s been leading the charge on slashing the federal workforce. About 20 technologists in the bureau were suddenly terminated on Thursday evening, The Verge reported, ravaging a team that provided deep expertise to help hold companies accountable for their financial technology services.
Across several agencies, the government has hurriedly removed webpages to comply with President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders at the start of his term. Many pages that hosted health information were brought back online this week to comply with a court order. Later, the Trump administration updated those pages with a disclaimer against “gender ideology,” noting it was forced by a court to restore the information.
There could be a brief reprieve for the CFPB after a new court order. On Friday evening, a judge put a pause on further firings of CFPB staff without cause, and ordered the agency not to delete agency records or data at least until a hearing on March 3rd.
