WASHINGTON: Hundreds of US government websites, including USAID’s, were offline on Monday, an AFP review found.
The outage affected over 350 federal sites from a list of nearly 1,400 provided by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Impacted agencies included the departments of defense, commerce, energy, transportation, labor, as well as the CIA and the Supreme Court.
The timing and reason for the outages remain unclear, though they coincide with President Donald Trump’s push to downsize the government.
Elon Musk, spearheading federal cost-cutting under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), announced USAID’s shutdown, calling it a “criminal organisation.”
Employees were reportedly instructed not to report to work Monday.
Additionally, public health agencies have erased LGBTQ references following Trump’s directive to terminate taxpayer-funded programs promoting “gender ideology.” Key HIV and LGBTQ youth data also vanished from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, alarming health experts.
“The removal of HIV- and LGBTQ-related resources creates a dangerous gap in scientific information,” the Infectious Diseases Society of America warned, stressing the public health risks.
The CDC’s landing pages for both topics now display: “The page you’re looking for was not found.” – AFP
