Internet Outages Surge in Q1 2026 Driven by Iran Conflict and Government Shutdowns, Cloudflare Reports
April 28, 2026
Internet Outages Surge in Q1 2026 Driven by Iran Conflict and Government Shutdowns, Cloudflare Reports
The first quarter of 2026 saw a sharp increase in global internet disruptions, with government-directed shutdowns, military conflict, and power shortages emerging as the primary causes, according to a new report from Cloudflare. The findings mark a significant escalation in connectivity interruptions compared to the previous quarter, underscoring the growing vulnerability of digital infrastructure to geopolitical and environmental pressures.
Cloudflare’s Internet disruption report, covering the three months ending March 31, highlights the Iran-US war as the dominant factor behind the spike. Following American military strikes on February 28, the Iranian government imposed a sweeping internet shutdown that remains in effect. The conflict also triggered Iranian drone strikes on data centers operated by AWS and Oracle in the UAE and Bahrain, causing brief but notable outages in the region. In January, Iran had already shut down most internet access in response to widespread anti-government protests.
Government-directed shutdowns also occurred in Africa during the quarter. Uganda and the Republic of Congo both cut off internet services during their respective elections in January and March, disrupting connectivity for millions of users. The intensity and frequency of these shutdowns stand in stark contrast to the fourth quarter of 2025, which recorded only one such incident in Tanzania following protests during a presidential election.
Infrastructure damage and technical failures compounded the disruptions. In Ukraine, Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk region and the city of Kharkiv affected internet access. Brief power outages led to connectivity losses in Argentina, Moldova, Ukraine, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, and the US Virgin Islands, while Cuba’s electrical grid experienced three separate collapses in March. A cyclone named Storm Kristin caused outages in Portugal’s Leiria, Coimbra, and Santarem districts in late January.
Cable damage also played a role. Early January damage to the West Africa Cable System disrupted internet in the Republic of Congo for roughly two days. Meanwhile, technical issues with Verizon in the US, Flow Grenada in Grenada, Orange Guinee in Guinea, and TalkTalk in the UK led to brief service interruptions.
The report signals a broader trend of escalating risks to global internet stability, driven by a combination of armed conflict, political instability, and aging infrastructure. As reliance on digital connectivity deepens, the frequency of such outages raises concerns about the resilience of critical networks in an increasingly volatile world.
Source: datacenterdynamics
