And finally Telegeography published this piece last year debunking the China submarine cable cutting story:
resources.telegeography.com/demystifying...
But now China is supposedly testing the device, so we've got a new round of articles — beginning again with the
@scmpnews.bsky.social.
China analyst @zichen.bsky.social covered the SCMP piece in his article:
www.pekingnology.com/p/some-troub...
The SCMP article included many wildly inaccurate claims such as, "The revelation marks the first time any country has officially disclosed that it has such an asset, capable of disrupting critical undersea networks."
Again, this is standard equipment for subsea cable repair.
Then Mar 2025, the South China Morning Post, which isn't exactly neutral on China, rehashed the same story but with a different patent and a much more hyped headline, "China unveils a powerful deep-sea cable cutter that could reset the world order."
www.scmp.com/news/china/s...
The first version of the story came out in Jan 2025 in
@newsweek.com.
Their "Chinese Patents Reveal Aim to Cut Undersea Cables" story was inspired by a 2020 patent application for a cut-and-hold grapnel, equipment for subsea cable repair for over 100 years.
www.newsweek.com/china-confli...
Oh boy. Here we go again with @scmpnews.bsky.social and the ridiculous Chinese submarine cable cutter story that was debunked last year.
In case you missed it last year, here's a recap... 🧵
www.scmp.com/news/china/s...
Iran’s Internet Blackout: Peering into The World’s Worst Internet Shutdown
Some are calling it Digital Apartheid. Our latest post uses traffic data to show how expanded whitelisting is reshaping internet access in Iran.
www.kentik.com/blog/irans-i...
"Peering" or lack thereof
Iran’s Internet Blackout: Peering into The World’s Worst Internet Shutdown
Some are calling it Digital Apartheid. Our latest post uses traffic data to show how expanded whitelisting is reshaping internet access in Iran.
www.kentik.com/blog/irans-i...
In my latest post for @kentik.bsky.social, I introduce the concept of ephemeral leaks, short-lived routing anomalies that appear briefly during #BGP convergence and fill the output of public leak detection tools like @radar.cloudflare.com and its predecessors.
www.kentik.com/blog/ephemer...
Internet shutdown in Iran is in its 46th day.👀
While only a fraction of normal traffic levels, the volume of whitelisted traffic has been slowly growing in the past month as the IR govt expands its program of selectively authorizing access to certain individuals and companies.
time is a flat circle
maybe it just needs a little more time
A recent target of airstrikes, Sharif University of Technology (AS12660) went offline at 23:12 UTC (2:42am local) today.
apnews.com/video/ict-bu...
@ioda.live view:
ioda.inetintel.cc.gatech.edu/asn/12660-IR...
🎉 OONI measurement coverage is expanding in countries where data was once scarce, including Burkina Faso, DRC, Afghanistan, and Syria.
This is thanks to @deutschewelle.dw.com's outreach around News Media Scan, an app we developed in close collaboration to test censorship of news media websites. 🐙
This was in the "little yellow house," before Berkman moved into its modern home. Took me 14 years to find my way back as a Berkman fellow.
The original slides are preserved here, as well. content.cooperate.com/presentation...
James Cowie on the Geopolitics of Internet Infrastructure
Recently came across this old talk (Nov 2011) at @harvard.edu by @jimcowie.bsky.social, a mentor of mine and pioneer in exploring the intersection of internet measurement and geopolitics.
Check it out here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx13...
The damage to Amazon Web Services (AS16509) in Bahrain is also visible in IODA with Active Probing dropping to 0% and BGP making a slight drop at 12:50 UTC.
Follow connectivity of AS16509 in near realtime:
ioda.inetintel.cc.gatech.edu/asn/16509-BH...
@amazonwebservices.bsky.social
Iran is now in its 32nd straight day of Internet blackout.
#DigitalBlackOutIran #IranWar
The country has spent over half of 2026 under a government-imposed communications shutdown.
‼️ #Russia has blocked Telegram, one of the most widely used messaging platforms in the country
explorer.ooni.org/findings/962...
OONI data suggests that many ISPs in Russia began blocking access to Telegram on 20 March 2026.
In December, I published a long-form piece based on the firsthand experiences of a Syria Telecom insider during the height of the civil war.
Only after the fall of Bashar al-Assad did this senior telecom engineer feel safe enough to tell his remarkable story.
syriauntold.com/2025/12/27/k...
I spoke with @almonitor.bsky.social for their story on the ongoing internet shutdown in Iran:
#DigitalBlackOutIran #IranWar
www.al-monitor.com/originals/20...
Some of the traffic lost on Mar-15 was recovered on Mar-18.
The ongoing Internet shutdown in Iran has been going for over 23 days, the longest in the country's history.
Read my post on the 2026 shutdowns in Iran:
www.kentik.com/blog/interne...
On Feb-4, @Starlink disabled terminals in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine that weren't on Ukrainian Ministry of Defense's approved list.
We saw a 75% drop in Starlink traffic to Ukraine as a result. 🤯
www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
Iran is currently enduring its longest-ever internet shutdown, which began shortly after the Feb-28 airstrikes.
My latest post covers all of 2026, outages within the whitelisted traffic, and other observations from our data. #DigitalBlackOutIran
www.kentik.com/blog/interne...
The current, ongoing near total Internet shutdown in Iran, disconnecting Iranians from the global Internet, is now longer than the January 2026 shutdown during nation-wide protests. This is the longest shutdown IODA has documented in Iran.
ioda.inetintel.cc.gatech.edu/country/IR?f...
Iran is currently enduring its longest-ever internet shutdown, which began shortly after the Feb-28 airstrikes.
My latest post covers all of 2026, outages within the whitelisted traffic, and other observations from our data. #DigitalBlackOutIran
www.kentik.com/blog/interne...
Continuing nationwide power outage in #Cuba is resulting in reduced internet traffic volumes as residents cannot get online.
Outage began at 17:40 UTC (1:40pm local) on Mar-16.