Claim: Undersea fiber optic internet cables were cut near the south of France and near Scotland

Question

I read that:

"A major Internet cable in the South of France was severed yesterday at 20:30 UTC, impacting subsea cable connectivity to Europe, Asia, and the United States and causing data packet losses and increased website response latency.

This undersea cable cut comes as Scotland is also dealing with cuts to TWO undersea communications cables connecting the mainland to the Shetland Islands."

Answer 1

This appears to be true, though it can be noted that the two events are not necessarily related. We are aware of a major cable cut in the South of France that has impacted major subsea cables with connectivity to Asia, Europe, US, and potentially other parts of the world. Customers may see packet loss and or latency for websites and applications which traverse these impacted paths,” Additionally, an undersea “submarine cable” was recently cut off the coast of northern Scotland, which has now been blamed on a fishing vessel.

Not misinformation

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/20/world/europe/shetland-scotland-outage.html

https://www.brusselstimes.com/311704/fibre-optic-cable-sabotage-causes-global-internet-slowdown

Comments

This is a solid fact-check. You provided a clear explanation, two sources, and a rating. Nice work.

Answer 2

It appears that both of these claims are true. As reported by the AP, "French police said Friday they're investigating multiple cuts to fiber-optic cables in France's second-largest city. Operators said the cables link Marseille to other cities in France and Europe and that internet and phone services were severely disrupted." This is further corroborated by updates from Zscaler, a cloud security company, which stated, "We are aware of a major cable cut in the South of France that has impacted major cables with connectivity to Asia, Europe, the US, and potentially other parts of the world. As a result of the cable cut, customers may see packet loss and/or latency for websites and applications which traverse these impacted paths."

Released documents from the Scottish government confirm there was "damage to the primary telecommunications cable between the Scottish mainland and Shetland (via Orkney) which caused a telecommunications outage on Thursday 20th October 2022."

It's notable that the two events don't appear to be related. As reported by the same AP article cited above, "The damage in the city in southern France...appeared to resemble suspected acts of sabotage to other cables in the country earlier this year," whereas correspondence within the Scottish government incident (cited above) said "[Redacted] confirmed on 21 October 2022 that a fishing vessel was the cause of the outage." Further, the Guardian reported that the cable was severed "due to accidental damage to the cable by a UK-registered trawler," according to UK government officials.

Answer 3

This claim is true. In October 2022, multiple undersea cables were deliberately severed near Marseille, France, disrupting global internet connectivity. The cuts affected major routes including Marseille-Lyon, Marseille-Milan, and Marseille-Barcelona, impacting connections between Europe, Asia, and the U.S. Investigators described the incident as a coordinated act of sabotage. Around the same time, a submarine cable near the Shetland Islands (north of Scotland) was also cut, causing internet outages in the region. This incident was later attributed to a fishing vessel, though initial speculation included possible sabotage.