diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index a4bcda6..aa7ee7b 100755
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -100,5 +100,5 @@ files/*
 priv-*
 config.py
 
-# Prevent new versions of this from being committed
-data/warnsv2.json
+# Prevent data files from being committed
+data/
diff --git a/Robocop.py b/Robocop.py
index 085191e..13e410f 100755
--- a/Robocop.py
+++ b/Robocop.py
@@ -167,4 +167,15 @@ async def on_message(message):
     ctx = await bot.get_context(message)
     await bot.invoke(ctx)
 
+if not os.path.exists("data"):
+    os.makedirs("data")
+
+wanted_jsons = ["data/restrictions.json",
+                "data/warnsv2.json"]
+
+for wanted_json in wanted_jsons:
+    if not os.path.exists(wanted_json):
+        with open(wanted_json, "w") as f:
+            f.write("{}")
+
 bot.run(config.token, bot=True, reconnect=True)
diff --git a/data/restrictions.json b/data/restrictions.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 0967ef4..0000000
--- a/data/restrictions.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-{}
diff --git a/data/warnsv2.json b/data/warnsv2.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 9e26dfe..0000000
--- a/data/warnsv2.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-{}
\ No newline at end of file