Data from one major internet infrastructure platform exposes both hidden disruptions and the vulnerabilities of platform concentration.

According to metrics from a major player in internet infrastructure that monitors about a quarter of global Internet traffic, the second quarter of 2025 saw a surge in Internet outages affecting its own user base, marking a significant reversal after a relatively quiet Q1.

The Q2 data from Cloudflare, a firm that processes about a quarter of the world’s Internet activity, one of the most notable regional interruptions observed within the firm’s monitored networks occurred in the Philippines. Internet traffic from SkyCable had plunged to zero for several hours, with the cause of the eight-hour outage undisclosed by the company.

In Thailand, mobile provider TrueMove H had suffered a widespread technical failure in Q2: connectivity for subscribers dropped by more than 80%, before gradually returning to normal later in the day. Thai media have attributed the incident to technical server errors, possibly involving the provider’s DNS infrastructure.

Other international user base disruptions

In Q2, government-mandated Internet shutdowns had also returned in force, impacting millions of users whose connectivity routing went through the internet firm’s infrastructure:

• Iran imposed multiple national restrictions in June following geopolitical tensions and cyber threats, with authorities briefly limiting access to the domestic National Information Network and cutting off incoming Internet traffic.
• Iraq and Syria had implemented periodic connectivity blackouts to deter cheating during national examinations — a regular occurrence in recent academic years — with both fixed and mobile networks affected in targeted time windows.

Outside of intentional shutdowns, infrastructure vulnerabilities had led to significant accidental disruptions. The most far-reaching was a massive power failure in Spain and Portugal on 28 April. The outage, which quickly halted nearly all Internet traffic within Cloudflare’s network footprint in both countries, has illustrated the dependency between electricity supplies and digital connectivity. Portugal’s traffic had dropped by nearly 90% compared to that of the prior week, with Spain’s falling by 80% at its nadir.

The Q2 Cloudflare findings do not represent all global internet traffic (for Q2 or otherwise), but the firm’s extensive coverage of over 20% of web activity underlines the complex and often fragile interplay of technical, political, and infrastructural factors (unfettered platformization) in global Internet access.

The return of government shutdowns, the impact of power failures, and technical network faults reveal persistent vulnerabilities in even the world’s largest digital networks