Multiple U.S. government websites reportedly experienced outages as President Joe Biden addressed the nation during his State of the Union speech Thursday.
The outage lasted approximately 20 minutes and occured while a lot of Americans were tuned into Biden’s speech. The websites for the the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Secret Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) all experienced downtimes, according to Reuters. DHS is the parent agency of the three other organizations affected.
The sites showed error messages indicating technical difficulties.
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 07: US President Joe Biden departs after delivering the annual State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the Capital building on March 7, 2024 in Washington, DC. This is Biden’s final address before the November general election. (Photo by Shawn Thew – Pool/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 07: Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-TX) (top) occupies the Speakers rostrum as the House of Representatives gavels out of session and lowers the lights while U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to members in the chamber after the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on March 07, 2024 in Washington, DC. This is Biden’s last State of the Union address before the general election this coming November. Biden was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA). (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 07: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol on March 07, 2024 in Washington, DC. This is Biden’s last State of the Union address before the general election this coming November. Biden was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA). (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The reason behind the disruptions remains unclear. (RELATED: ‘Marines!’: Gold Star Father Escorted From Congress For Interrupting Biden SOTU)
Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram underwent a roughly 90-minute service interruption that impacted users Tuesday in the U.S., U.K., several European countries, China, Australia and Mexico.