US Govt Shuts Down Hundreds Of Govt Websites. Here's Why

Hundreds of US government websites were offline on Monday, according to an AFP review, including that of the humanitarian agency USAID, which is being shut down by President Donald Trump's administration.

Of the nearly 1,400 federal websites listed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), over 350 were unavailable on Monday afternoon.

These included sites associated with the departments of defence, commerce, energy, transportation, labour, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency and the Supreme Court.

The exact time when the websites became unavailable was unclear, and it was unknown whether they were temporarily offline or taken down at the instruction of Trump's administration.

This development comes amid the administration's controversial efforts to drastically reduce the size of the US government.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and the world's richest person, is leading Trump's federal cost-cutting initiatives under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

On Monday, Musk announced that USAID would be shut down, labelling the agency-which operates relief programmes in about 120 countries-as a "criminal organisation."

USAID's website was offline, and employees were instructed via email not to report to their offices on Monday.

Additionally, a number of US government websites, including those of major public health agencies, have removed references to LGBTQ topics following a directive from Trump last week, instructing them to terminate all taxpayer-funded programmes promoting "gender ideology," US media reported.

Trump has already signed executive orders banning diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the government.

Key information and datasets related to HIV and LGBTQ youth have also been removed from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, alarming health experts.

On Monday, the CDC's landing pages for both topics displayed the message: "The page you're looking for was not found."

"The removal of HIV- and LGBTQ-related resources from the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies is deeply concerning and creates a dangerous gap in scientific information and data to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks," the Infectious Diseases Society of America said in a statement.

It added, "Public access to this information is especially important as diseases such as HIV, mpox, sexually transmitted infections, and other illnesses threaten public health and impact the entire population."