Iran Weaponizes Internet Infrastructure as New Economic Lever

Iran is leveraging its control of subsea cables beneath the Strait of Hormuz—critical arteries carrying trillions in global data traffic—to extract revenue from tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Meta. Disruption to these cables could cascade across banking systems, military communications, and cloud infrastructure worldwide. The move reveals how digital infrastructure chokepoints have become new battlegrounds for state power and economic coercion.