Cloudflare says autocrats, wars and elections caged the internet in Q1

Cloudflare's Q1 2026 report documents a surge in internet disruptions driven by military conflict, government shutdowns, and elections. Iran shut down the internet for 61 days after Israel-US military strikes on February 28, plus earlier January blackouts during civil unrest. AWS datacenters in the UAE and Bahrain were damaged by drone strikes, Ukraine experienced traffic drops from Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, and Uganda and Congo shut down internet during elections.