offline

New data has shed light on the alarming rise of “anti-LGBTQIA+ targeted hate and rhetoric.”

On 20 October, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) released a new report offering a five-year overview of the online and offline anti-LGBTQIA+ landscape.

“This Dispatch provides an overview of anti-LGBTQ+ mobilisation and how it is exacerbated by tech platforms,” researchers Guy Fiennes and Paula-Charlotte Matlach wrote.

“It incorporates activity which meets ISD’s definition of targeted anti-LGBTQ+ hate (‘activity which seeks to dehumanise, demonise, harass, threaten or incite violence against an individual or community based on their LGBTQ+ identity’), as well as activity which discriminates against LGBTQ+ people (and those perceived to be LGBTQ+), and which erases LGBTQ+ voices or rolls back LGBTQIA+ rights.”

Divided into two parts, the first half of the study presents statistics from various organisations highlighting the offline hate LGBTQIA+ people have faced across the US, UK and wider Europe.

In the US, more than 20 per cent of hate crimes recorded were motivated by anti-LGBTQIA+ bias for the third consecutive year, according to FBI crime data released in August 2025.

NGO GLAAD reported 918 anti-LGBTQIA+ incidents across the US in 2024, including seven fatalities and 140 bomb threats. Among those incidents, 48 per cent of victims were trans, non-binary or gender-nonconforming individuals.

The ISD report also included data from the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, which found that LGBTQIA+ people are five times more likely to be victims of violent crime in the US compared to non-LGBTQIA+ people, and nine times more likely to experience violent hate crimes.

While the latest UK crime statistics reported an 11 per cent decrease in annual anti-trans hate crimes and a two per cent decrease in hate crimes related to sexual orientation, there was a sharp increase in both categories between 2021 and 2022.

“ISD calculated that in the five years between 2020 and 2025, anti-trans hate crimes in the UK rose by 50 per cent, and sexual orientation crimes rose by 18.1 per cent overall. The vast majority of anti-LGBTQIA+ hate crimes are likely unreported,” the report revealed.

Across wider Europe, a 2023 EU Agency for Fundamental Rights survey found that violence and harassment against LGBTQIA+ people had increased from 11 per cent to 14 per cent, while anti-LGBTQIA+ bullying in schools jumped from 46 per cent to 67 per cent.

When examining government and legislative actions, all three countries showed an increase in anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment led by government officials and lawmakers. The Trump administration, the UK’s Reform Party and Hungary were listed among the biggest offenders.

In the second half of the report, the ISD explored the online harm endured by the LGBTQIA+ community over the past five years.

Following a recent analysis of US-based violent extremist accounts and groups targeting the community, researchers found that “online hate spiked in response to real-world events and political developments.”

The data also revealed that the trans community is increasingly targeted by violent extremist accounts across various platforms, imageboards and forums.

“Anti-trans hate speech rose from 35 per cent of all anti-LGBTQIA+ speech in October to November to 46 per cent in December to January. There is a notable overlap between groups that direct violence and hate speech against LGBTQIA+ people and groups identified as threats to US national security and the government,” researchers explained.

Elsewhere, the study highlighted GLAAD’s 2025 Social Media Safety Index report, which found a lack of moderation of anti-LGBTQIA+ hate on social media platforms, alongside over-moderation of LGBTQIA+-inclusive accounts and content.

The report also examined the negative impact of AI content moderation systems, revealing that they have been “found to censor queer users who use ‘slurs’ to self-label (e.g. queer, gay, or femboy).”

“AI-driven censorship of LGBTQIA+ content that it labels as ‘sexualised’ or ‘offensive’ reflects offline biases that unfairly label queerness as inherently sexual and inappropriate,” researchers added.

You can read IDS’ full report here.

A major outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday disrupted a large portion of the internet, taking down apps, websites and online tools used by millions of people around the world, before services were eventually restored.

From banking apps and airlines to smart home devices and gaming platforms, the hours-long breakdown revealed how much of modern life depends on cloud’s infrastructure.

Here is what we know:

What happened and what caused the AWS outage?

At about 07:11 GMT, Amazon’s cloud service experienced a major outage, meaning some of its systems stopped working, which disrupted many popular apps and websites, including banks, gaming platforms and entertainment services.

The problem started in one of AWS’s main data centres in Virginia, its oldest and biggest site, after a technical update to the API – a connection between different computer programmes – of DynamoDB, a key cloud database service that stores user information and other important data for many online platforms.

The root cause appears to have been an error in the update that affected the Domain Name System (DNS), which helps apps find the correct server addresses. A DNS works like the internet’s phone book, turning website names into the numeric IP addresses that computers use to connect to servers.

Because of the DNS issue, apps could not find the IP address for DynamoDB’s API and were unable to connect.

As DynamoDB went down, other AWS services also began to fail. In total, 113 services were affected by the outage. By 10:11 GMT, Amazon said that all AWS returned to normal operations, but there was a backlog “of messages that they will finish processing over the next few hours”.

At the time of publication, Downdetector, a website that tracks internet outages based on user reports, was still showing problems with platforms such as OpenAI, ESPN and Apple Music.

Updated look at the total impact of the AWS Outage up to this point!https://t.co/Bgpm1fFGtf pic.twitter.com/TAAxjagNl6

— Downdetector (@downdetector) October 20, 2025

What is a cloud and what exactly is AWS?

A cloud is a way of storing and using data or programmes over the internet instead of on your computer or other physical storage devices.

When people say something is “in the cloud”, it means the files, apps or systems are running on powerful computers (called servers) in data centres owned by companies like Amazon (AWS), Google or Microsoft, not on your personal device.

In this case, AWS allows companies to rent computing power and storage. It supplies the technology that runs websites, apps and many online services behind the scenes.

One of AWS’s core services is DynamoDB, a database that stores important information for companies, such as customer records. On Monday, Amazon reported that customers were unable to access their DynamoDB data.

AWS is the biggest cloud service provider in the world.

Cloud outages are not rare, but they have become more noticeable as more companies rely on these services every day.

“The fallout impacted people across a number of different spheres,” Joshua Mahony, the chief market analyst at Scope Markets, told Al Jazeera. [But] of course this kind of comes with the territory with tech companies; the key is they can resolve it quickly, and it doesn’t cost them a lot of money.”

He said Amazon would likely weather the storm from the incident.

“You’re looking at something that is relatively contained,” he said. “Amazon Web Services has cornered 30 percent of the market alone. Their users are not going to suddenly jump ship. Their businesses are deeply ingrained.”

Which services and apps went down?

The outage affected dozens of websites, including Snapchat, Pinterest and Apple TV, according to Downdetector.

Other communication apps were also affected including: WhatsApp, Signal, Zoom and Slack; gaming services such as Roblox, Fortnite and Xbox; and places like Starbucks. Etsy also experienced issues.

In the United States, people were having issues with financial apps too, including Venmo.

Some users said their Ring doorbells and Alexa speakers stopped working, while others could not access the Amazon website or download books on their Kindles.

The language app Duolingo and creative tool Canva were among those reporting errors on their websites, and several media organisations were hit, including the Associated Press news agency, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Banks, the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and AI firm Perplexity also reported issues, along with US airlines Delta and United.

Why did so many major apps go offline at once?

When AWS had its outage, it was not just Amazon’s tools that were affected. Thousands of other companies that use AWS for storage, databases or web hosting were also hit. These companies include many major apps that rely on AWS to run key parts of their systems.

“Whenever we see these headlines, the first thought that goes through everybody’s mind, that sends a shiver up the spine, is, ‘Is this one of those cyberattacks? Is this a military or intelligence-led thing that has led to this disruption?’ And in this case, it’s not,” Bryson Bort chief executive of the cybersecurity company Scythe told Al Jazeera.

“In fact, most of the time, it isn’t. It’s usually human error.”

How did Amazon respond?

AWS acknowledged the outage and said engineers were “immediately engaged” to fix the problem.

AWS said it worked on “multiple parallel paths to accelerate recovery”. It also reported that the main issue had been fully resolved, though some users continued to face minor delays as systems recovered.

The company also said it would publish a detailed post-event summary explaining what happened.

At dusk, Najibullah Nakaka begins a 20-minute steep climb to Wajen Etisalat, a hilly neighbourhood in Birnin Gwari, Nigeria, where the mobile signal is slightly stronger. Locals gave it the name, which translates to Etisalat’s Place, because it is one of the few spots where you might find internet access, even if only momentarily. The name harks back to Etisalat, the former name of 9mobile, a local telecom operator that once had a stronger presence in the area.

With his phone gripped tightly in one hand and hope in the other, he ascends through rocky paths and bushy outgrowths. He just wants to upload an image of the native caps, wristwatches, or shoes he sells in his small shop on a social media marketplace. It is a ritual that takes him away from his home, often at night, in search of a network signal that may or may not be there.

“I used to wait till midnight, sometimes longer,” Najibullah, a soft-spoken man in his early 30s, recalled. “Even if the signal came, it wasn’t enough to make a call. At best, I could send a text or a voice note. Sometimes, I had to hike for about 41 km to neighbouring areas like Bagoma or Kamuku National Park just to find MTN’s signal — one we believe was coming from Niger State.”

This is not just his story. It’s the lived reality for over 300,000 people in Birnin Gwari, a local government area in Kaduna State, northwestern Nigeria, where full network coverage has remained elusive for over three years.

Najibullah’s sister struggles to communicate with her husband, who is in Europe. She tries to send him pictures of their one-year-old daughter from time to time.

Birnin Gwari used to be a lively transit hub linking Nigeria’s North to the South. Bigger in size than Lagos, with an area of 6,185km², the town bustled with trailers transporting livestock, grains, and people along its highways. Its large grain and livestock markets were among the largest in Kaduna State. But a large forest on its outskirts became a hideout for armed groups, and eventually, the town began to unravel under waves of insecurity.

In 2021, as violence escalated across the region, state governments, starting with Zamfara and Katsina, then later Kaduna, ordered a telecom shutdown aimed at disrupting insurgents’ ability to coordinate attacks. But rather than stopping the violence, the blackout brought untold socio-economic hardship to residents. Locals told HumAngle that the attacks not only continued but worsened, with people not being able to make distress calls during the attacks. With mobile networks down, terrorists began demanding ransoms through handwritten letters.

Although the government lifted the restrictions in late 2021, residents of Birnin Gwari say network coverage has not returned. Local telecom operators like MTN, Airtel, and 9Mobile are absent across the local government. GLO works only sporadically in three out of eleven wards. Residents rely on a mix of low-tech ingenuity and costly alternatives; climbing hills, suspending phones on antennae, or congregating at fuel stations that use satellite internet services like Starlink.

While it is an alternative, Starlink installation and subscription are expensive and cannot be afforded in every home or business. As of June 2025, the hardware costs about ₦626,300, and the monthly subscription is around ₦57,000, figures far beyond reach for most residents. 

“Sometimes, it feels we’re back to the Stone Age,” said Mallam Hassan, a resident who sells telecom recharge cards. “When we can’t reach the people we want to communicate with, we have to rely on word of mouth to get our messages delivered. It is that bad.”

The shutdown’s effects are far-reaching. Najibullah’s fashion business suffered. His attempts to apply for a Master’s programme at Bayero University, Kano, failed due to an inability to access the application portal in time. Eventually, he relocated to Zaria, an urban area in Kaduna State, where he now works as a classroom teacher and digital educator.

“It led me to open a foundation that serves as a bridge between students and opportunities that are being shared online,” Najibullah told HumAngle. “They send me their details, and I fill out the forms for them. Teachers and students alike are missing out on digital educational tools that will get them prepared for the future. There is no integration of technology and digital tools in education.”

He added that, “There is no JAMB centre in Birnin Gwari. People have to travel to other neighbouring local governments or Kaduna town to register and sit for JAMB (pre-university) exams.”

Businesses are in decline. Livestock and grain trading have slowed to a crawl. There is no single functioning bank in the town. Union Bank, once the only commercial presence, shut its doors due to both insecurity and the absence of a telecom signal.

“This is why I had to leave, because my work and schooling are virtual,” Najibullah said. 

Hassan, who once supplied over ₦5 million worth of recharge cards weekly, now struggles to hit ₦200,000. “People can’t recharge phones without a signal. My friend, who used to sell livestock and grains worth ₦50 million monthly, can barely survive now. [Physical] cash movement is dangerous, and there’s no network for mobile transactions.”

‘Peace has not translated into connectivity’

In January 2025, Kaduna State negotiated a peace pact with some armed groups, reportedly enabling the reopening of markets and the resumption of 24-hour road traffic. The cattle market, which had been dormant for over a decade, is slowly reviving, with more than 50 trucks now departing weekly.

But peace has not translated into connectivity. Telecommunications companies have been reluctant to return. Masts destroyed during the conflict remain unrepaired.

“We have been writing letters and lobbying the influential individuals in our town to lead the conversation about restoring the networks. We have equally written to the telcos to come back, as Birnin Gwari is peaceful now. Up till now, nothing has been done,” Najibullah said.

Gbenga Adebayo, Chairperson of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, did not respond to our requests for comment.

However, Frank Eleanya, a telecom analyst, said: “When we think about telecommunications, we need to see it more as a commercial entity than a humanitarian one.”

Eleanya explained that restoring operations in a community like Birnin Gwari, where several pieces of infrastructure have been vandalised, might not be an easy decision for telecom operators, particularly in the face of declining revenues and shrinking profit margins. “One of the things that will determine whether they return immediately is how much they were earning there in the first place. If it wasn’t profitable, they wouldn’t see it as viable. The decision to return depends on commerce — on how much they stand to make,” he added.

Amid financial constraints, many telecom companies have slowed the deployment of new infrastructure. “They are currently focused on optimising existing assets to generate returns for shareholders,” he told HumAngle. 

Eleanya also noted that if telecom operators are not convinced that security has been sufficiently addressed in these communities, it will be difficult for them to reinvest, particularly because restarting connectivity and revamping infrastructure is capital-intensive. 

Nonetheless, he stated that if the federal or state government is willing to bear the costs, including the right of way and cutting down multiple taxation, telecom operators may be more inclined to consider returning. “But you can’t hold them to ransom and insist they must come back to the community,” he said. “There are significant costs they are factoring in.”

HumAngle reached out to James Kanyip, the Kaduna State Commissioner of Home Affairs and Internal Security, for comment via email and phone call, but he did not respond.

“The people are living in darkness, deprived of communication and opportunities due to this prolonged outage,” said Isah Muhammad Galadima, a lecturer at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, in an open letter to Nigerian telecom operators. “[They] are in dire need of assistance.”

Getty Images

BBC/NatWest

A recurring problem

May 19 (UPI) — The National Weather Service in Alabama warned Monday that weather radio broadcasts are offline for routine maintenance as severe storms are forecast to hit the state Tuesday.

The weather service said while all watches and warnings will be released over the next few days, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Radio transmitters will be offline during that time. Severe storms are forecast Tuesday for much of Alabama.

“NWS local offices plan to inform listeners both on-air and on their websites when updates are scheduled,” according to the NOAA Weather Radio website. NOAA Weather Radio is a network of stations that broadcasts warnings and weather information from the National Weather Service. The Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System, or AWIPS, went offline Monday and will remain down through Wednesday.

“Our Weather Radio broadcasts have concluded and will remain unavailable until our system updates are complete,” NWS Birmingham wrote Monday in a post on X. “Weather products will continue to be transmitted via the Internet, weather apps and wireless emergency alerts.”

“During the time of the update, forecast operations will be conducted in conjunction with our service back-up office in Peachtree City in Georgia to minimize any potential interruption to services,” the National Weather Service said Monday. “No impacts to our core services of forecast products and weather watches, warnings and advisories are expected during this period.”

The software updates will impact transmitters across northern and central Alabama. The NWS said its forecast office in Birmingham will remain open and staffed during the maintenance.

Approximately 31 million people from Texas, north to Iowa, could see severe storms starting Monday with forecasts showing strong winds, hail and tornadoes. That risk will shift Tuesday to Louisiana and north into Alabama and Indiana.

The NWS is urging Alabama residents to gather several weather sources — the Internet, weather apps and local emergency management — to ensure they receive all severe weather warnings in order to stay safe over the next few days.

Deadly storms and tornadoes over the weekend hit 10 different states, including Texas, Kansas, Missouri and Kentucky, where at least 28 people were killed.