Iran has issued a sharp statement directed at the largest American IT companies, issuing an ultimatum to giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. According to the Iranian side, these corporations allegedly must compensate for expenses related to the laying and use of underwater internet infrastructure in the area of the Strait of Hormuz.
In the event of refusal to make payments, Tehran has threatened radical actions — damaging undersea cables that provide data transmission between Europe, Asia, and the countries of the Persian Gulf. These communication backbones are considered critically important for the functioning of the global network, and their disruption could trigger a chain reaction ranging from the suspension of banking transactions and stock exchange operations to failures in streaming services, cloud platforms, and artificial intelligence systems.
Undersea cables are the backbone of the modern internet: more than 95% of global internet traffic passes through them. Despite the development of satellite technologies, cable infrastructure remains the key element for stable and fast data transmission. Damage to even several major routes could lead to noticeable delays, increased traffic costs, and partial isolation of certain regions.
Interestingly, amid these threats, Iran itself has been living for a long time under conditions of severe restrictions on access to the global network. The country is actively developing domestic digital services and national alternatives to popular platforms, which partially compensates for the lack of stable international internet connectivity.
Experts note that such statements are more often used as an instrument of geopolitical pressure, since the actual destruction of cable infrastructure would have serious consequences not only for other countries but also for the region itself. However, the vulnerability of the global internet remains an important issue: the infrastructure is concentrated in a limited number of routes, and their protection is becoming one of the key tasks for the global economy and cybersecurity.
