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By Andrew Stanton and Gabe Whisnant
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President Donald Trump suggested a temporary pause on government websites may not be a "bad idea" amid reports of some web pages going dark on Friday.
"I don't know. That doesn't sound like a bad idea to me," Trump said when asked by a reporter whether websites would be paused to scrub them of references to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website appeared to be temporarily offline but had gone back up. Other government websites were still up by publication.
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Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email.
Why It Matters
Trump targeted DEI initiatives in the early days of his second term, passing an executive order aimed at purging the programs from the federal government, the extent to which information was being removed from the websites.
But critics quickly sounded the alarm about the removal of important information on topics like HIV from official government websites.
What To Know
Public health data vanished from websites, entire webpages went blank, and employees removed pronouns from email signatures on Friday as federal agencies rushed to comply with a directive linked to Trump's order reversing protections for transgender individuals.
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The Office of Personnel Management instructed agency heads in a memo sent on Wednesday to eliminate "gender ideology" from websites, contracts, and emails, mandating that these changes be implemented by 5 p.m. on Friday. The directive also called for agencies to disband employee resource groups, terminate related grants and contracts, and replace the term "gender" with "sex" on government forms.
The FAA and U.S. Census Bureau were among the websites that were temporarily out.
According to the Associated Press, contraception guidance, a fact sheet about HIV and transgender people, lessons on building supportive school environments for transgender and nonbinary children and details about National Transgender HIV Testing Day were among the removed topics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Survey results showing that transgender students suffer higher rates of depression, drug use, bullying and other challenges were also removed, the AP reported.
A CDC page on HIV testing was also removed. A separate page about safer food choices for pregnant people was taken down, only showing text that reads, "The page you're looking for was not found."
A webpage from the State Department about LGBTQ+ travel safety removed references to transgender people, only referring to "LGB" travelers. State Department employees were also ordered to remove gender-specific pronouns from their email signatures, the AP reported.
What People Are Saying
Advocacy organization Public Citizen, on X, formerly Twitter: "Some government websites have gone dark. Climate change is being removed from government sites. Nonpolitical workers are being fired from government jobs. Americans are being cut off from information. This is what authoritarianism looks like."
Representative Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, on X: "As Chair of the HIV/AIDS Caucus, let me be clear: erasing HIV/AIDS content from government websites helps literally no one. It endangers public health and abandons those who rely on these critical resources. Reckless and stupid."
Representative Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat, on X: "What is Trump trying to hide? Just today, public health information regarding LGBTQIA health, healthcare disparities, children's mental health, and more has been deleted and censored from government websites. What other data is the Trump Regime about to erase?"
What Happens Next
It's unclear how long these outages would last. The information that has been removed is unlikely to return during the Trump administration.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
Update 1/31/25, 6:24 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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