Cloudflare released its Q2 2026 Internet Disruptions Report, highlighting how conflict, government intervention, severe weather and critical infrastructure failures shaped Internet connectivity around the world during the second quarter of 2026. Drawing on data from Cloudflare Radar, the report documents significant disruptions across the Middle East and Africa alongside major events in Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas.
The findings underscore the Internet’s growing dependence on resilient physical and digital infrastructure and illustrate how geopolitical events and government policies continue to influence connectivity for millions of users.
Key findings
- Iran reconnects after an 88-day Internet blackout: Beginning May 26, Cloudflare Radar observed Internet traffic returning after a near-total national shutdown that started on February 28. Traffic eventually stabilized at approximately 59% of pre-shutdown levels, marking one of the most significant connectivity restorations of the quarter.
- Exam-related shutdowns remain a recurring trend: Governments in Sudan and Iraq imposed a combined 13 Internet shutdowns during Q2 to coincide with national examinations. These scheduled disruptions continue a seasonal pattern that Cloudflare has tracked over multiple consecutive quarters.
- Conflict continues to affect regional cloud infrastructure: HTTP traffic to AWS’s me-central-1 region in the United Arab Emirates remained significantly below normal throughout the quarter, reflecting the continued impact of physical damage to data center infrastructure caused by regional conflict and drone strikes. The disruption continued to affect applications and websites hosted in the region.
- Natural disasters and power outages disrupted connectivity across multiple regions: Super Typhoon Sinlaku caused the quarter’s longest Internet disruption near Guam, while major earthquakes in Venezuela and a nationwide power failure in Tanzania each triggered significant, hours-long declines in Internet traffic.
- Infrastructure vulnerabilities remain a global challenge: A DNSSEC configuration error temporarily made Germany’s .de websites inaccessible in May, while a submarine cable cut reduced Internet traffic in Saint Lucia by approximately 60%, highlighting the ongoing importance of resilient Internet infrastructure.
Middle East and Africa in focus
The Middle East and Africa experienced several of the quarter’s most consequential connectivity events.
After nearly three months of near-complete disconnection, Iran began restoring Internet access in late May, with traffic gradually recovering toward recent historical baselines. At the same time, traffic to AWS’s UAE-based me-central-1 cloud region remained depressed following physical damage to regional infrastructure, illustrating how conflict can have lasting downstream effects on businesses and digital services.
Government-directed Internet shutdowns also remained prevalent across the region. Sudan implemented ten scheduled shutdowns during national examinations between April 13 and April 23, while Iraq imposed three additional exam-related outages in June. These recurring events continue to demonstrate the significant influence governments can exert over national connectivity.
Elsewhere on the continent, Tanzania experienced a sharp decline in Internet traffic following a widespread power outage in late June, reinforcing how failures in critical infrastructure can rapidly translate into digital disruption.
A quarter defined by resilience and fragility
Beyond the Middle East and Africa, Cloudflare Radar observed Internet disruptions resulting from typhoons, earthquakes, power failures, submarine cable cuts and DNS misconfigurations. While the causes varied considerably, each event illustrated how interconnected systems, from power grids and undersea cables to cloud infrastructure and routing protocols, must work together to keep the Internet running reliably.
Cloudflare Radar continuously monitors global Internet traffic and connectivity trends, publishing observations through the Cloudflare Radar Outage Center and regular research reports to improve transparency around Internet resilience worldwide.