Cloudflare’s latest Internet Disruptions report reveals Iran’s return online after an 88-day blackout, continued impacts from regional conflict, and persistent exam-related Internet shutdowns across the Middle East and Africa.
Dubai, UAE,August, 2026 – Cloudflare, the leading connectivity cloud company, today 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, while illustrating 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.
Graphic attached
About Cloudflare:
Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) is the leading connectivity cloud company. It empowers organizations to make their employees, applications and networks faster and more secure everywhere, while reducing complexity and cost. Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud delivers the most full-featured, unified platform of cloud-native products and developer tools, so any organization can gain the control they need to work, develop, and accelerate their business.
Powered by one of the world’s largest and most interconnected networks, Cloudflare blocks billions of threats online for its customers every day. It is trusted by millions of organizations – from the largest brands to entrepreneurs and small businesses to nonprofits, humanitarian groups, and governments across the globe.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “explore,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern Cloudflare’s expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the capabilities and effectiveness of Cloudflare’s Workers developer platform and other products technology and VoidZero‘s products and technology, the benefits to Cloudflare’s customers from using Cloudflare’s Workers developer platform and other products technology and VoidZero‘s products and technology, the timing of when Cloudflare’s Workers developer platform and VoidZero’s products and technology and or any of their related features will be fully integrated and generally available to all current and potential Cloudflare customers, the potential timing of the closing of Cloudflare’s acquisition of VoidZero, Cloudflare’s plans and objectives for, and the timing of, the integration of VoidZero’s products and technology into Cloudflare’s Workers developer platform, Cloudflare’s technological development, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by Cloudflare’s CEO and others. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in Cloudflare’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including Cloudflare’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on May 8, 2026, as well as other filings that Cloudflare may make from time to time with the SEC.
The forward-looking statements made in this press release relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. Cloudflare undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. Cloudflare may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in Cloudflare’s forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on Cloudflare’s forward-looking statements.
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.
Graphic attached:
About Cloudflare:
Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) is the leading connectivity cloud company. It empowers organizations to make their employees, applications and networks faster and more secure everywhere, while reducing complexity and cost. Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud delivers the most full-featured, unified platform of cloud-native products and developer tools, so any organization can gain the control they need to work, develop, and accelerate their business.
Powered by one of the world’s largest and most interconnected networks, Cloudflare blocks billions of threats online for its customers every day. It is trusted by millions of organizations – from the largest brands to entrepreneurs and small businesses to nonprofits, humanitarian groups, and governments across the globe.
Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “explore,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern Cloudflare’s expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the capabilities and effectiveness of Cloudflare’s Workers developer platform and other products technology and VoidZero‘s products and technology, the benefits to Cloudflare’s customers from using Cloudflare’s Workers developer platform and other products technology and VoidZero‘s products and technology, the timing of when Cloudflare’s Workers developer platform and VoidZero’s products and technology and or any of their related features will be fully integrated and generally available to all current and potential Cloudflare customers, the potential timing of the closing of Cloudflare’s acquisition of VoidZero, Cloudflare’s plans and objectives for, and the timing of, the integration of VoidZero’s products and technology into Cloudflare’s Workers developer platform, Cloudflare’s technological development, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by Cloudflare’s CEO and others. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in Cloudflare’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including Cloudflare’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on May 8, 2026, as well as other filings that Cloudflare may make from time to time with the SEC.
The forward-looking statements made in this press release relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. Cloudflare undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. Cloudflare may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in Cloudflare’s forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on Cloudflare’s forward-looking statements.
