Why did Minnesota DHS website go offline right after Nick Shirley's viral childcare probe? Here's what we know

Amid growing concerns over Minnesota's childcare fraud, a sudden website outage has now sparked public scrutiny. State Representative Mary Franson shared a screenshot of the downtime on X (formerly called Twitter) and urged Governor Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Human Services to provide an explanation for the unexpected disruption. Moreover, Nick Shirley, the independent journalist and YouTuber, whose investigation went viral, and his recent confrontation with a local man raised concerns after the state's childcare licensing website unexpectedly went offline. Let's find out what happened.



According to The 420, tensions escalated when Minnesota's childcare licensing website unexpectedly went offline. Following this, the Minnesota Department of Human Services posted a notice explaining that an unprecedented spike in traffic had caused service disruptions and that technicians were working to restore the access.

Moreover, amid all this, the timing of the outage grabbed the attention of netizens, while Shirley argued that after roughly a week of the viral video, it seemed far from being coincidental. Not only this, but he also shared the DHS message and questioned publicly what the governor's office might be just hiding, suggesting the disruption and suggesting his reporting was prompting closer scrutiny of the state's childcare system.



The report noted that officials confirmed that they visited several daycare centres featured in Shirley's videos on December 29, and according to CBS News, two of these centres were already closed the previous year.

"The Minnesota Department of Human Services has seen an unprecedented high volume of traffic to this website, causing service disruptions and website outages. We are actively working on this issue. This message will be removed when it is resolved," a post by the DHS read.

Tim Walz’s office has strongly denied Nick Shirley's allegations regarding Minnesota's childcare system. Moreover, a spokesperson has emphasised that the governor is committed to combating fraud and has engaged an independent third-party firm to audit payments to high-risk programmes.



Despite this, Shirley continues to question the oversight of state funding, highlighting cases like the Quality Learning Center, which reportedly received over $4 million in state aid despite being licensed for only 99 children. While the state officials, including Minnesota's Department of Children, Youth and Families Commissioner Tikki Brown, say they take fraud concerns seriously but raised questions about some of the methods used in Shirley's video. Meanwhile, major attention has now grown, with US Education Secretary Linda McMahon explaining the situation as a "breathtaking failure".