Iran Threatens to Charge Google, Meta and Other Tech Giants Subsea Cable Transit Fees

The Strait of Hormuz is a digital chokepoint linking the Persian Gulf to the global internet, with at least seven subsea cables passing through it. TeleGeography says the Falcon and Gulf Bridge International cables enter Iranian territorial waters, though the relevant routes accounted for less than 1% of global international bandwidth as of 2025. Iran is now turning sovereignty over its territorial waters into leverage over digital infrastructure, raising the risk that outages could disrupt regional energy, banking and cloud services.

On May 9, 2026, Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari announced on X that fees would be imposed on internet cables. On May 18, media affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps demanded that Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft comply with Iranian law, that subsea cable operators pay transit permit fees and that maintenance rights be reserved for Iranian companies. No fee schedule has been disclosed. Mostafa Taheri, a member of parliament’s Industries Committee, estimated that revenue could reach as much as $15 billion.